the Leaves of the Tree
by shefalls
Summary: After the Naruto Bridge mission, Sakura dedicates herself to studying, because like it or not she's the closest Team 7 has to a brain. On her quest for knowledge, she stumbles upon an old, dusty, unclassified mission report and discovers a name - Uzumaki Kushina. This changes... everything. First in the 'Trees of Konoha' trilogy.
1. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 1

**A/N**

**Disclaimer: All Naruto characters and plot references are property of Masashi Kishimoto.  
**Some information about this work: this is an AU. I've taken the privilege of rewriting certain events as I see fit, and completely eliminating others. Inevitably, the characters are going to be OOC. Currently the rating is a firm T, but it will go up to an M not because of explicit content, but rather depictions of violence and use of strong language.  
This story begins right after Team 7 concluded the Naruto Bridge mission. The main character is Sakura Haruno, who I'm very proud to say is my all time favourite Naruto character. This will not be a Saku/Sasu story. I repeat, Sasuke Uchiha takes no vital part in this work, doesn't appear for most of it, and won't be getting together with Sakura at any point. Therefore, if you ship these two hard and object to any other pairing, read this at your own risk.  
I hope you enjoy this and stay with me throughout.  
Your comments are always welcome.

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**1.**

Sakura couldn't sleep.  
She'd not slept a wink since they were ambushed on that dumb bridge, since Sasuke-kun was pierced all over by needles made of ice and Naruto went on a rampage, covered in that strangely toxic red chakra. Every time Sakura closed her eyes she could see it all happening again, in vivid detail.  
Sasuke-kun falling to his knees.  
_'My body… just moved on its own…'_  
Naruto seemingly losing his mind.  
_'I'll kill you!'_  
Kakashi-sensei's Chidori ripping through that boy, Haku, like a knife through butter.  
That terrible sound of a thousand birds chirping, that grated on Sakura's ears worse than even Ino's shrill voice early in the morning.  
Sakura curled into herself, tightened her thick futon about her and closed her eyes again. No, she couldn't sleep. But she sure as hell wasn't going to let herself forget.

The first thing Kakashi-sensei did once they returned to Konoha, was haul Naruto and Sasuke-kun to the hospital. A solid-looking middle aged woman gave Sasuke-kun's pale, wobbling form one stern look and promptly hauled him off, while another immediately recognized Naruto and dragged him by the ear to an examination room. The results came a little over thirty minutes later: Naruto was perfectly fine. Sasuke-kun wasn't. Team 7 was given a four-day sabbatical, told to not put a toe out of Konoha and Sasuke-kun specifically was confined to his hospital room for at least the first two days. Sakura had tried to wish him well, had turned her eyes on the handsome boy she'd loved as best as a twelve year old girl could, but he wasn't looking at her.  
Sasuke-kun was looking at Naruto. They seemed to be having an entire conversation with just their eyes.  
Sakura turned tail and dragged her feet home.

That was yesterday afternoon, over twelve hours ago. She'd not left her bed since.

"Naruto, huh?" Sakura muttered, still buried under her futon, twirling a lock of pink hair around a pale, thin finger. When did Naruto and Sasuke-kun become so close? How did it happen? She thought Sasuke-kun couldn't stand Naruto, like she did. She thought Naruto was just a loud loser.  
"You're the loser." Inner Sakura said dryly. "At least Naruto can pack a punch. You're the deadweight. Weak. Stupid. Useless. Annoying."  
Was she annoying?  
Sasuke-kun told her so, frequently.  
Kakashi-sensei seemed to think she was pretty annoying himself, and rather useless, too.  
Sakura turned to her other side and curled up again.  
Come to think of it, for a very long time the only one to think anything nice of her had been Naruto.  
"Whom you treat like dirt, mind you." Inner Sakura sneered, as frank and merciless as ever. "Even though he didn't do nothing to your pasty ass."  
"He's rude to Sasuke-kun."  
"And?" Inner Sakura sneered. "Sasuke doesn't give a fuck, does he? Besides, that moody princess can take care of himself. Unlike someone."  
That was true enough, Sakura supposed. Sasuke-kun could take care of himself, and Naruto was prone to mimicking him anyway. It's Sakura who was the problem.  
Weak.  
Useless.  
"Ungrateful," Inner Sakura supplied, a little smugly.  
Sakura remembered Naruto catching her when the bridge crumbled. Naruto, blocking any debris from ever making it to her. Naruto, always having her back.  
Sasuke-kun only ever covered himself.  
"Ungrateful." Sakura repeated quietly.

And so passed day one of her sabbatical.

* * *

After another night of nearly no sleep, Sakura found herself in an unusual mood. Unusual in the sense it was mostly reserved for Inner Sakura, and she, herself, rarely experienced it.  
Pure, uncontrollable rage.

"Who the hell asked him to protect me?!" Sakura howled.  
"Uh, I'm pretty sure it comes with being teammates." Inner Sakura told her, a little dryly.  
"Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun mind their business!"  
"Kakashi's a near catatonic pervert," Inner Sakura said. "Sasuke's a prissy bitch. They both suck."  
It never ceased to amaze Sakura how her inner self disliked Sasuke-kun with a passion. It seemed impossible, that any part of herself would feel this way about her Sasuke-kun. Inner Sakura heavily disagreed and said that she, unlike Sakura, wasn't going to like a pretty face just because everybody else did.  
"I don't like Sasuke-kun just because he's pretty!" Sakura screeched. "And I don't like him just because everybody else does!"  
"I didn't say anything." Inner Sakura muttered.  
Sakura grabbed the nearest thing she could – a pretty vase she'd made with her aunt last summer – and threw it at the opposite wall. The vase smashed into tiny little pieces. Some of Sakura's anger abated.  
"Here's an idea," Inner Sakura drawled mockingly, "break your stuff. It'll definitely make you feel better."  
Sakura grabbed another trinket.  
Inner Sakura observed in horrified silence as Sakura proceeded to break near everything she could touch. What she couldn't break, she damaged to the best of her ability. What couldn't be damaged was hit until her fists and feet bled and she couldn't stand up anymore.  
"Naruto, you idiot!" Sakura bawled, sitting in the middle of her hand-made mess like a toddle after a particularly destructive tantrum. "Why did you save me so many times? Why are you so nice to me? Let me hate you!"  
"You don't hate him." Inner Sakura said coldly. "Stop lying to yourself."  
Sakura just continued to cry, until her mother came home hours later, saw the decimated room, and gave Sakura something real to cry about.

And so passed day two of her sabbatical.

* * *

Day three was different, too.

Sakura woke up in the guest room, not her own room. She won't be stepping foot in there until it had been completely fixed, in about two days. The Haruno Clan had enough money to rebuilt anything at all in as little time as possible. They weren't a shinobi clan though, so nobody in Konoha cared. Sakura's mother had patiently explained that the reason they lived in the middle-class section of the merchant district was precisely that – Konohagakura was a shinobi village. For all their money, the Haruno Clan was made up of 90% civilians, 8% medical nin and only about 2% active shinobi, none over the rank of chunin. For them, it was best to not stand out.  
Sakura eyed the lavish rug under her feet for a moment before snorting in derision and storming towards the bathroom. If they really didn't want to stand out, they'd not furnish their house with custom made pieces from the capital. Shinobi might not know the difference between the handwoven rugs in Sakura's house and the simple ones down in the market, but other civilians could. Other civilians did. It's half the reason Sakura didn't have any friends until she met Ino. Nobody wanted a piece of the rich, pink-haired princess.

'Ino.'

Sakura eyed her sopping wet reflection critically, as her brain tossed random memories from happier times, all of them containing a laughing blonde girl with twinkling blue eyes.  
"I miss Ino." Inner Sakura said, a little sadly.  
"I miss Ino, too." Sakura admitted.  
"Then let's go get our pig back."  
"Yeah." Sakura nodded resolutely. "Let's go get our pig back."

As it happened, Ino 'Pig' Yamanaka didn't want "back".  
"Just because you fucked up, Forehead, doesn't mean you can come running to me." Ino hissed at Sakura. "I ain't second place to anyone, not even Sasuke-kun, you hear?!"  
It always amazed Sakura how Ino could look and sound absolutely menacing while dressed in a pink apron and deftly arranging flowers into intricate bouquets.  
"You're not second place, Pig." Sakura growled through tightly clenched teeth.  
"Oh, yeah?" Ino snapped and finally turned to look at Sakura. "Then tell me this. If you weren't feeling useless and abandoned by that bromance Naruto and Sasuke-kun are building, would you be here?"  
"Bromance?" Sakura asked dumbly.  
"Hello?" Ino raised an eyebrow. "They've been doing this since the academy. And you just proved you're only here because you feel like a third wheel."  
"I'm not!" Sakura protested.  
"Yeah?" Ino glared, "why you here, then?!"  
"Because I miss you!" Sakura screamed.  
Ino's jaw dropped in surprise, and Sakura could hear Ino's father drop whatever he pretended to mess with in the back room while he eavesdropped.  
"I miss you, pig." Sakura repeated, a little bit calmer. "Even though you're rude, and loud, and really judgemental. You're the best friend I ever had."  
"Because I'm the only friend you ever had." Ino growled, visibly stung.  
"No!" Sakura stomped her foot. "Because you're honest, and you're kind, and you're loyal! You don't mince words, pig. You'd rather I cry for five minutes and move on, rather than look ridiculous or lie to myself. You chose me, when no one else did. I should've chosen you. Not Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry."  
"Does that mean you're giving up on him?" Ino asked shrewdly.  
"Over my dead body."  
"Good." Ino huffed, "I almost thought you were."  
Sakura rolled her eyes.  
"C'mere, forehead." Ino beckoned with a cheeky smile and Sakura happily threw herself into the offered hug. Ino squeezed her tight, tight enough that Sakura knew she'd missed her, too, without Ino ever needing to say so.

And so passed day three of her sabbatical.

* * *

Sakura spent the fourth and last day in the library.

She wasn't planning on it. It was Ino's day off from both the Yamanaka shop and her team training. They were going to go shopping, eat desserts and complain about how boys, even when ridiculously pretty, were such a pain. But Ino had to return a book to the library first.

"Seriously?" Sakura had raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you could read, pig."  
"Piss off, forehead." Ino huffed, "my dad needed me to clear something for him. You know, like a useful member of the household."  
"Oh, shut up."  
"No, no," Ino mocked, "most of us don't have people to do that for us."  
"Ino!" Sakura groaned and the blonde laughed at her, before sashaying to the counter. Trust Ino to immediately resume mocking Sakura's mother and her never uprooted tendency to hire someone for everything, because why on earth should she bother herself with manual labor?

As Ino cheerfully chatted with the librarian – today it was a rather cute shinobi boy, a few years older than them, who looked genuinely flattered – Sakura dragged her feet towards the index and began to browse the accessible books in an attempt to amuse herself. She'd not been to the library since before her Academy days. Once upon a time, Sakura loved books. They didn't hurl insults and didn't mock her forehead, or hair.  
'I read this,' she noted, 'and this, and this. These three, those two… huh. I read most of the basic stuff.'  
"Nerd." Inner Sakura snickered.  
Sakura rolled her eyes and trailed her finger lower on the list, until a title caught her eye.  
'Chakra Control and its Implications'.  
A memory from the days leading up to the Naruto Bridge incident floated up from the recesses of Sakura's mind.  
_'Out of everybody on this team, Sakura-chan's chakra control is the best.'_  
Kakashi-sensei's voice droned, as bored and monotone as ever. He stated it as fact, not a compliment, and at the time Sakura had brushed it off. She was too proud for being able to do something neither Sasuke-kun nor Naruto could.  
"Chakra control," Sakura murmured and quickly made her way to where the book was stored. It was a rather thick scroll, its color an unassuming gray. She wouldn't have noticed it had she not known it was there.  
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Inner Sakura whispered.  
Sakura hummed, and pulled the tome off the shelves.

By the end of the day, she'd taken out twenty sources on chakra control and staked her claim on a table further down the back. The librarian swore no one would touch it even after she left. That Sakura could keep her spot and stuff undisturbed for up to twenty days. It suited her perfectly.  
If chakra control was the only think she was good at, then Sakura was going to make sure she was the absolute best, to the point even Kakashi-sensei would have to acknowledge her.  
She'll never be useless again.


	2. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 2

**A/N**

**Disclaimer: All Naruto characters and plot references are property of Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**2.**

"This looks weird." Sakura murmured dejectedly.

"This was recommended by eight different books." Inner Sakura snapped.

"It still looks weird."

"Because it's your face!" Inner Sakura huffed, "now come on! Our sabbatical's up!"

Sakura took anther mournful look at her reflection and sighed. She'd braided her hair as tightly as she could, into a wounding bun right at crown of her skull. It was a rather thick bun, which made her entire head look rounder than usual. She kept her bangs covering her forehead, though, with the standard Konoha forehead protector on top. No need to show off that particular feature.

"This is practical." Sakura said, determined to convince herself.

"Just ask Ino for another style next week!" Inner Sakura howled, "we're gonna be late!"

Sakura grabbed her weapon pouch and sprinted out the house. Her speed and stamina were abysmal, she'd be late no matter what.

"But still earlier than Kakashi!" Inner Sakura encouraged.

At least that was true.

Sakura was the first to arrive on training field 7.

She blinked dumbly at the abandoned space and briefly panicked that her teammates had abandoned her, moved on without her, when she heard Naruto's loud voice curse behind her.

"Screw you, teme! You're a jerk!"

"Better than a loser, loser." Sasuke-kun's baritone snapped back angrily, and Sakura restrained herself from undoing her braids immediately.

'I won't be useless,' she chanted in her mind, 'my hair gets in the way. Sasuke-kun won't notice!'

"Ah! Sakura-chan! Your hair!"

Trust Naruto to make sure Sasuke-kun did, in fact, notice.

Sakura bit her lip and glanced nervously at her teammates. Sasuke-kun looked confused, like he didn't recognize her, for all of five seconds before he snorted and stomped a little way away to begin stretching. Naruto was smiling brightly, as always, and nodded enthusiastically at her.

"I like it!" he said, and gave Sakura a thumbs up. "Your hair looks really nice like this! Like it's got a lot of different shades!"

"What?" Sakura asked, before she could control herself.

"I mean, it always has them, you know? It's not the same color all over. But when it's braided like that, the colors stand out!" Naruto rambled and Sakura could've sworn he blushed. Like he hadn't meant to say this at all.

Something inside her warmed, and she lost a bit more of her animosity towards this sunny idiot.

"Thanks, Naruto." Sakura said, a little stiffly, but it was enough to make Naruto grin even brighter and excitedly bounce in place.

"Why?" Sasuke-kun asked. His sudden direct address of her made Sakura jump and then blush heavily.

"I- I read that it's recommended to braid hair back for beginner kunoichi." Sakura stuttered, "in e-eight books this s-s-style was recommended, so…"

"Hn."

He didn't mock her.

Granted, Sasuke-kun hadn't complimented her like Naruto did, but he'd not mocked her. Sakura almost thought there was a brief glint of approval in his dark eyes.

"As if!" Inner Sakura guffawed.

* * *

Team 7 was taken off the mission roster for the next three weeks, not because of their massively screwed up C-rank turned A-rank, but because Kakashi-sensei was needed elsewhere. He gave them the laziest training schedule ever drafted in the history of ninja, warned Naruto to not get his teammates into trouble, blinked at Sakura's braids and patted Sasuke-kun's shoulder. Then he was off, and the three genin were left to their own devices.

The second day, Sakura came prepared, armed with her research notes of chakra-control and ways of improving it. While Sasuke-kun practiced as diligently as always, and Naruto slept in the sun, Sakura read and made notes. When her teammates decided to spar together – read, recklessly beat up each other – Sakura was still studying. She continued on through lunch and then into the early afternoon until it was time to go home. She repeated this for another two days, until she decided she had enough notes to try and practice.

"Say, Sakura-chan," Naruto blinked at her from beneath the tree Sakura chose as her practice spot. "Why're you hanging upside down from the branch?"

"I'm practicing chakra control." Sakura answered tightly.

She'd been hanging like this for the past hour and a half. With her meager amount of chakra, such a feat was immensely difficult. But she'd read that by continuously practicing and straining herself like this, her chakra reserves would begin to grow. Another way was of course to build up stamina and muscle power, but she had no idea how to do that in practice, only on paper. She'd decided to ask Kakashi-sensei when he returns, and to practice like this until then.

"I don't understand." Naruto told her after a few moments.

Sasuke-kun snorted from where he was sharpening his shuriken.

Naruto threw a stone at him.

Before this could escalate to a fight, Sakura quickly spoke.

"I don't have a lot of chakra." She said, feeling her face redden even further with embarrassment, rather than strain. "I read that if I practice my control and strain myself like this, my reserves might grow."

"Really?" Naruto tilted his head. "But Kakashi-sensei said your chakra control's really good!"

"It's not perfect, though."

'Yet,' Sakura added in her mind. She'll definitely perfect it.

"Can you teach me?" Naruto asked curiously. "Is this the same as tree walking?"

Teach him? Naruto wanted her, Sakura, to teach him? She was so surprised she promptly fell off and would've landed on her face, had Naruto not caught her. Again.

Remembering the amount of times he'd helped her, saved her life, even, Sakura couldn't find it in her to tell him no. So instead she sat up and thought about it.

"I don't know how exactly to help you." She said hesitantly.

"Oh," Naruto immediately deflated, "that's fine, then –"

"But, I know how to start. I think." Sakura took a deep breath, nodded and then fixed Naruto with her hardest glare. "Do a simple cloning jutsu."

Naruto immediately jumped to his feet, but Sakura was quick to cut in.

"A regular cloning jutsu! Not Shadow Clones!"

"Aw! But I suck at that, Sakura-chan!"

That's was exactly why she wanted him to do it.

How the hell could Naruto master an S-rank forbidden technique in less than a day, but fail miserably at a D-rank jutsu designed for children? The readily available answer was abysmal chakra control. But Sakura still remembered that cloak of dangerous red chakra that Naruto summoned up on that damn bridge. It seemed endless. It felt powerful. It was more chakra than she ever felt from anyone.

"Do it anyway!" she barked.

Naruto immediately obeyed and as expected, he failed.

Sakura frowned.

"Okay." She muttered and raked her brain for any sort of high level jutsu. The first that came to mind was an S-rank as well, but it was an elemental technique. She'd researched it for an assignment back in the academy. A water jutsu, because water was one of the natures of Sakura's little chakra. "I'm going to show you some hand signs. Pay attention."

Naruto nodded hesitantly.

"Boar." Sakura said.

"Boar." Naruto repeated, his tone surprisingly serious.

"Tiger."

"Tiger."

"Dragon."

"Dragon."

"Rabbit."

"Rabbit."

"Ox."

"Ox."

"Boar."

"Boar."

Even Sasuke-kun was watching them now, a frown on his face. Sakura had no doubt he recognized the jutsu.

"Okay. It's a water jutsu. It's called 'Dragon Whirlwind'." She told Naruto. "Try using it."

Naruto nodded, repeated the hand signs twice more for practice and then stepped away carefully. Sakura knew this jutsu could level seasoned jonin, and drain their chakra to nothing if cast more than twice by most professionals. Honestly, it could probably kill her if she tried to muster up enough chakra for it. But something told her Naruto would be just fine.

Sakura watched carefully as Naruto began to knead his chakra, and her hair almost stood on end when she felt it move with each hand sign formed. A little to her left, Sasuke-kun was watching just as carefully, to the point even his sharingan activated.

"Double Whirlwinds!" Naruto yelled.

For a long moment nothing happened at all. Sasuke-kun snorted again and turned off his doujutsu. Sakura was almost ready to frown.

Then, two massive whirlwinds of water erupted out of nowhere directly in front of Naruto. They shot out, collided with a tree at the other end of the clearing and completely destroyed it. Naruto didn't even break a sweat.

Sasuke-kun looked stunned, to the point he dropped the kunai he'd been sharpening.

Sakura jumped to her feet and clapped excitedly.

"I was right!" she cheered, "I knew it wouldn't kill you!"

"What?!" Naruto yelped, "it could've killed me?!"

"Only if you didn't have the chakra, but you've a ton of it!" Sakura waved him off. "You're completely different from me, Naruto. I barely have any chakra at all but you – you have so much to can't use it!"

"What do you mean, can't use it?!"

Sakura spent the rest of the day hanging form a branch while forcing Naruto to do the same. She needed it to expand her reserves, Naruto needed it to get a feel for just how much freaking chakra he had and how to properly draw on it. Then, she dragged him to the library instead of going home. Sasuke-kun had stared at them as if they've lost their minds. Naruto had flat out told her she'd lost her mind. Sakura smacked him on the nose and told him to buckle up.

They were building a proper training schedule.

* * *

And that's how Sakura found herself spending the rest of her Kakashi-sensei free time.

She'd wake up at five in the morning, make her way to Naruto's apartment and drag him out for a run. At first she could barely make half a lap around the village. By the time Kakashi-sensei returned, she could run three-quarters of the way before needing a break. Then, she made Naruto spar with her. He'd been horrified by actually raising a hand at Sakura, but when she told him it was mostly for her – to turn her into something other than useless – Naruto had firmly told her to never, ever, call herself that again, and proceeded to enthusiastically thrash her. He'd held on to that enthusiasm so far, and Sakura couldn't be more thankful. If Naruto didn't hold back, she had to struggle. When she struggled, she improved. After her scheduled morning beat up, the two separated for showers and breakfast, and then met up again on the training fields, where they continued to practice chakra control.

Slowly, over the first two weeks, and the following two weeks after Kakashi-sensei's return, Sakura found herself settling into her strange new regime.

She spent most of her waking hours with Naruto: training together before team training or another D-rank mission, followed by at least three hours in the library in the afternoon. Naruto hated the library, but he still sat trough it even if all he did was get Sakura more books, read her notes and ask asinine questions. Her weekends were the only time Sakura spent away from her blonde teammate, and with the other blonde in her life. If Ino noticed Sakura's strange new lifestyle, she made no comments about it, and Sakura was glad.

She didn't know how to explain why she dragged Naruto into her quest after perfect chakra control, or why she began to shape this quest around Naruto's need to control his seemingly endless chakra reserves.

Sakura had no idea why, at some point, she started bringing lunch for Naruto, too, and not just herself and Sasuke-kun. Maybe it happened because she noticed that more often than not, Naruto didn't eat. Maybe it's because she'd been to his place, had seen his terrible living conditions and realised there was no functioning adult to teach Naruto how the hell to live healthily. So she took it upon herself.

On their first day off after Kakashi-sensei's return, Sakura manhandled Naruto into cleaning his apartment. It took close to six hours to completely disinfect the place. From mold, to unidentified stains and sheer amount of trash that needed to be taken care of, Sakura was surprised Naruto had survived for so long – and in perfect health to boot. She'd then drawn up a cleaning schedule and hung it up on Naruto's fridge, along with exact instructions on how the fuck to clean, do laundry and sort his belongings.

On their next day off, Sakura dragged Naruto shopping. For food, yes, but also for clothes, sheets and extra living necessities.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said quietly, as Sakura channeled her inner Ino and screeched at a frowning seamstress who refused to sell Naruto anything. "It's alright."

"No it ain't!" Sakura screeched and pointed a finger in the woman's face. "Listen here, you old hag! I'm Haruno Sakura!"

The woman immediately paled, and Sakura knew she hit the jackpot. She immediately started screaming louder, drawing absolutely everyone's attention.

"If you don't want my money, fine! I'll never step foot in here again! My whole family won't!" Sakura announced, "In fact, the Haruno family won't spend a single ryo in any place that mistreats Uzumaki Naruto!"

Her mother would object to that at first, but she'd probably be so overjoyed Sakura finally started throwing her financial weight around, that she'll eventually cave. If Haruno Mebuki wanted anything, it's for Sakura to quit her shinobi career and join the family's financial empire. Sakura never would, but she wasn't above using that empire when her friends needed it.

"Oh, so Naruto's your friend, now?" inner Sakura drawled mockingly.

"Damn straight!" Sakura answered aloud and stuck her nose in the air. "Anyone who mistreats my friends, mistreats the Haruno family! Let's go, Naruto!"

"What –" Naruto started, but he was promptly cut off by the frightened seamstress, who was desperate to not lose one of her best clients.

In the end, they'd gotten everything Sakura wanted, and at half price as an apology.

"Don't worry Naruto." Sakura said as they dragged their purchases up the stairs to his little apartment. "None of those merchants will ever mess with you again. I can't say anything for the shinobi district, though."

"You didn't need to do it." Naruto mumbled. "I don't need your pity."

"What pity?!" Sakura snapped and immediately bonked him on the head. "Listen here, idiot! I didn't do it out of pity! You're my teammate! I'll be damned if I let you starve and live in a dumpster if I can help it! What if you get sick? It'll affect all of us!"

"I never get sick –"

"That's not the point!" Sakura roared. "You're my friend, okay? Friends help each other! You help me train, and I help you take care of those jerks who gang up on children! What's up with that, anyway?"

Sakura determinedly ignored Naruto's teary eyes and marched on. By the time Naruto caught up, she was done stashing the contents of her bags in the appropriate spots and was about to head back home.

"See you tomorrow." Sakura told him; a little bit softer than ever before.

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed loudly, "Believe it! Say, Sakura-chan, why'd you threaten those old jerks with your family?"

"Ah?" Sakura blinked. "Oh, I guess you wouldn't know about it. I'm from the Haruno Clan."

Naruto blinked his eyes at her, completely uncomprehending.

"My family's the richest merchant clan in Fire Country."

"What?!"

* * *

This is how Sakura became friends with Naruto.

She never regretted it.


	3. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 3

**A/N**

**Disclaimer: All Naruto characters and plot references are property of Masashi Kishimoto.**

Thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement.

I'll admit I'm shooketh (is this how you use it? I'm really very old inside, I don't know). I'm also very grateful. I didn't expect my way of reliving boredom and procrastinating would be welcomed so warmly. It makes me all tingly inside, it's one of the few bits of happiness I've got around lately that's entirely my own and it's all thanks to you. So thank you. Please bear with me until the end, I'll try to make it worth your while.

As for this story: I'm making it clear in advance that the plot won't be truly starting for a few more chapters. I find it's best to introduce most if not all the center players beforehand, so that I don't have to shove 'fillers' down your throat when we're in the thick of things. So expect maybe two or three more introductory chapters (this one included), until our stage is properly set, and I can get on with it.

Another word of caution: this right here, this very chapter, is where I'm officially kissing most canon compliant characteristics goodbye. Sakura's going to be even more different now, Naruto will of course tag along, and all characters introduced or described might (most likely will) not be the same as in our much loved source material (the manga, guys. I don't have the willpower to watch the whole anime, for the love of god).

With this little ramble done, please, a round of applause for Sakura's third chapter 😊

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**3.**

It's been almost two months since Sakura semi-forced Naruto into training with her, in exchange for helping improve his chakra control. If at first Sakura begged for a break after half a lap around Konoha and was beaten by Naruto in ten seconds flat, now she ran three full laps and could last up to twenty minutes.

She never won.

She never even landed a punch on Naruto.

She couldn't keep up with him at all.

But she improved so much in so little time, she wasn't even considering stopping.

And Naruto's chakra control improved so much it made Sakura giddy.

Whenever Naruto aced a new low-level jutsu, Sakura beamed and fist-bumped the air along with him, while Sasuke-kun rolled his eyes and Kakashi-sensei scratched at his head uncomprehendingly. She'd taught Naruto how to do that. She helped him. Every little step he took in the right direction was a large leap for Sakura's self esteem.

Maybe she'll never be a prodigy like Sasuke-kun, or a genius like Kakashi-sensei, or even a hidden talent like Naruto.

But apparently, she could nourish someone else's talent. And she could do it well.

It made her think of Ino's promise that Sakura would one day bloom into the most beautiful flower.

Maybe, this was her way of doing it.

* * *

"C'mon, Sakura-chan! Another lap!"

Sakura grunted and dragged her aching feet onwards, following behind Naruto's orange-clad back in a steady, if slow, rhythm.

They were on lap six and Sakura wanted to drop.

Preferably into a bath, but at this point she'd settle for any kind of flat surface.

"You can do it, Sakura-chan!"

Really, she so wanted a bath right now. To smell like a person, and not some sort of sweaty, dusty beast.

"Gooo, Sakura-chan! Believe it!"

"Naruto!" Sakura roared, "shut your trap or I'll strangle you! Believe it!"

Naruto yelped and quickened his steps, but Sakura's anger gave her strength and soon, they were racing each other to an unknown finish line.

If she wasn't so damn tired she'd be having fun.

"What a marvelous display of youth!"

Naruto tripped over his feet in surprise and fell face first onto the dusty path. Sakura managed avoiding the same fate only barely and stood over his crumpled form, bent at the waist and gasping for breath.

Something green hopped in place smack in the middle of their way.

'Not a thing,' Sakura realised, 'it's – it's a person!'

'Thing fits, too.' Inner Sakura commented in horror.

Sakura couldn't really argue the point.

The person was a boy, maybe a year or two older than herself. From his bowl cut black hair, bushy eyebrows and tight, green leotard he gave the impression of unstable sanity – but that was the sort of impression most shinobi gave. And he was a shinobi – a well-maintained Konoha forehead protector hung about his neck on full display.

"It's a caterpillar!" Naruto screeched, "a talking caterpillar!"

"What caterpillar?" Sakura snapped, "it's a person!"

Though honestly Naruto's description wasn't too far off.

"Fair maiden!" the strange boy exclaimed dramatically, "you're full of beautiful, fiery youth! It is almost as beautiful as your youthful face! Truly, you're a shining example of Konoha youth!"

Sakura tried her best not to gape.

Naruto already took a step back and half hid behind her, his eyes wide with concern. He obviously decided they just stumbled upon a lunatic, and after months under Sakura's dictatorship he was confident in her ability to get them out of it.

Sakura wasn't as confident.

"Please, do me my honour of accompanying me on a date!"

"What!" Naruto screeched while Sakura took a step back in surprise.

* * *

As you've probably guessed, this was how Sakura and Naruto met Konoha's Green Beast, Rock Lee. Of course, he wasn't quite Konoha's Green Beast back then, but he was well on his way and at that point in time Sakura was rapidly developing her mother's long perfected talent of sniffing out useful connections. Naruto, bless his dumb blonde head, seemed to be born with it.

As Rock Lee's seemingly unending stamina registered along with the complete lack of any chakra around him, Sakura and Naruto exchanged a brief glance before pouncing on their prey. That is, new friend. If Lee was at all disappointed that Sakura completely avoided his invitation on a date, he didn't let it show. If anything he seemed to be exceedingly flattered and happy to have been promptly interrogated about who he was, what team he was on and how come they've never seen him around before being hauled to the nearest training field where he completely and totally thrashed both Sakura – which was expected – and Naruto – which was a little bit less expected, as Naruto could go on for days. But apparently when he was faced with Lee, he could go on for three minutes, fifteen seconds, at most. Sakura timed it.

"Lee-san," Sakura began earnestly, "would you like to join us for our morning training? It would be a great help!"

"Yeah!" Naruto wheezed, shakily lifting a foot in the air from his sprawled position. Lee had completely exhausted him. "Bushy rows, you've got some sick moves! Teach 'em to us, dattebayo!"

"I would be honored to partner with you!" Lee exclaimed with much enthusiasm.

Sakura began to suspect this was his default mood. She sort of… liked it?

'Damn straight!' Inner Sakura hissed, 'it's damn motivating!'

"As Gai-sensei is your sensei's Eternal Rival and Best Friend, I'm honor bound to help you always!" Lee continued, "We're already bound through the ties of our masters!"

"Kaka-sensei has friends?" Naruto asked in genuine surprise.

"No way," Sakura whistled. "Someone can put up with that personality-lacking, shameless-"

"Oi, Sakura-chan," Naruto guffawed, "that's not true. Kakashi-sensei has a personality. It's Icha-Icha Tactics."

"Being a pervert is not the same as having a personality!"

"To be fair," Lee said seriously with a thoughtful look on his face, "Guy-sensei probably has enough personality to spare. Yes."

Before Naruto could ask what he meant by that, Lee promptly hauled them off for another round of thrashing.

Inner Sakura cheered for their early victory.

This new friend was guaranteed to be worth it.

* * *

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!"

Team 7 was on their first long mission since the Naruto Bridge Debacle. Yes, Sakura was calling it that, capital letters included. As of now, they were taking a break for lunch. Kakashi-sensei lounged in a tree right above Sakura's head, reading his precious porn. Sakura was steadily working through her unusually large lunch-box. Her mother had received some letter from their relatives in the capital and had been particularly emotional for the past week, smothering Sakura and Sakura's father with uncommonly soft affection.

Sasuke sat across the road, brooding, as per usual.

'I'm proud of you for dropping the kun.' Inner Sakura complemented quietly.

'I'm proud of myself, too.' Sakura agreed, a little smugly.

She'd dropped the honorific approximately ten days ago. All three of her teammates looked stricken for the first day – Kakashi-sensei in particular, for whatever reason. By the third day, Naruto was over it. By the sixth day, Sasuke actually smirked at her. As if he was finally getting just that little bit more comfortable with his only female teammate, whom he'd known since they were five. Oh, Sakura still thought he was the best thing since strawberry mochi, but she'd learned Sasuke was uncomfortable with fawning and appreciative towards practicality. So she made herself practical.

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan, SAKURA-CHAN!"

"I heard you the first time, sit down and shut it!" Sakura barked, and tossed a piece of pickled plum at Naruto's head. He caught it in his mouth. It was no loss, she didn't like it anyway.

Naruto made himself comfortable next to her and fished out the daily lunchbox Sakura had presented to him out of his pouch with care.

"What do you want?" Sakura grumbled. She was enjoying her lunch. And staring at Sasuke while scouting their surroundings. She found he completely bought into that pretense, and intended to use it to it's fullest, thank you. And no, she hadn't shared with Ino. Best friend or not, they were still competing for his heart. Sasuke just didn't know it.

"I forgot to tell you yesterday," Naruto began cheerfully. "Bushy Brows invited us to his birthday party!"

"Lee-san's birthday?" Sakura perked up, "when is it?"

"Yesterday!"

"Are you daft, Naruto?!" Sakura shrieked, loud enough to alert the dozing Kakashi-sensei and draw Sasuke's attention, even though he was trying to ignore them. "Was the party yesterday, too?!"

"Nah!" Naruto quickly backed up a little, and put up his lunchbox as a sort of shield. Sakura would never risk ruining her masterpiece, and he knew that now. "It's this Saturday, this Saturday! It's some sort of extra super training, and then barbecue!"

"Extra super training?" Sakura tilted her head.

Lee was already completely insane with his workouts. It could get worse? Truly?

"That sounds insane," she concluded, "I'm in."

"Seriously?!" Naruto wailed, "no fair! I'm only coming to the barbecue!"

"Your loss, man," Sakura drawled, in perfect mockery of Shikamaru when someone refused his offer of an afternoon nap. Naruto immediately got it and snickered.

"Well, Bushy Brows said to let you know his sensei's gonna be there." Naruto said cheerfully, "and his teammates. I'm bringing Shikamaru and Choji to the barbecue."

"Naruto, you can't invite people to some else's party."

"Nah, Bushy Brows knows 'em." Naruto waved her off, "they're skipping the training part, too."

"How the fuck does he know them?" Sakura wondered aloud.

Naruto promptly dropped his lunchbox.

Kakashi-sensei dropped his precious Icha-Icha Tactics.

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"What?"

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei said, his tone the flattest Sakura had ever heard it. "Watch your language."

Ah.

So she said that aloud.

Then again, Naruto swore all the time, and nobody ever told him to watch it.

'No fair!' Inner Sakura protested, 'favouritism!'

"Naruto swears all the time!" Sakura immediately protested, "And Sasuke, too!"

"Oi!"

"Hn."

Her teammates glared at her for throwing them into the mix.

Kakashi-sensei blinked and then promptly straightened. Quite suddenly he went from lazy and uninterested geezer to intimidating jonin. It was so quick Sakura almost got whiplash.

"New rule," Kakash-sensei growled. "no one on this team is allowed to curse. Or be rude in general. Those who do, will be punished."

"But teme's always rude." Naruto pointed out.

"Piss off, loser." Sasuke snapped.

"Both of you do a hundred push-ups and chant the ninja code from memory." Kakashi-sensei ordered.

Sakura spent the rest of their break watching, gobsmacked, as her teammates were disciplined for the first time. And with an iron-clad determination, too. Kakashi-sensei seemed to take her use of foul language as a personal offence.

'I think… I think we might be his favourite.' Inner Sakura mumbled in awe.

'Maybe not his favourite,' Sakura noted, 'but something's there, definitely.'

'You're going to abuse it to get more library time, aren't you?'

'Hell yes.'

'That's my girl.'


	4. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 4

**A/N**

**Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto. All characters belong to him and him alone.**

Hello and welcome back!  
We're almost to the plot, guys! Please bear with me a while longer, I'm setting the scene to the best of my abilities. I promise any holes or mistakes I've made, I made intentionally. They'll be explained by the end of this story (or, y'know, it's parts. Have I mentioned this has parts? Oops). If any aren't, then they're actual mishaps, and you should totally let me know.  
Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your comments.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**4**.

Today was a special day.

A year ago was the most recent genin graduation ceremony.  
A year ago, Team 7 was formed.  
Naruto was on his best behaviour the whole day. Sasuke didn't even glare at anything so far, either. Even Kakashi-sensei was only an hour late. And yet, even though today's training started over five hours ago, the last member of Team 7 was nowhere to be found.

Had this happened a year ago, it wouldn't necessarily surprise anyone, or bother anyone. But the Haruno Sakura of today wasn't the same Haruno Sakura who'd graduated from the academy. Team 7's Sakura hadn't missed a single training session since the mission to wave, a month after they became a team. Nor was she ever this late.

"I don't get it." Naruto said with a frown, from his spot atop Sasuke's feet. "She didn't show up to our morning run, either. Did something happen at her home?"  
"Who cares?" Sasuke grunted, as he attempted to balance on his hands and not drop his teammate. "Stop moving!"  
"I ain't moving, you're moving!"

This was a new 'teamwork' exercise from the corrupt mind of their sensei. One team member would do a handstand. Another would balance atop the first's feet. The third was supposed to clasp hands with the second and balance at the very top of the human tower. It was uncomfortable. It was annoying. It was the dumbest thing they've ever heard. Kakashi-sensei still made them do it for forty minutes each day, and apparently they weren't exempt from it even if one teammate wasn't present.

"Less whining, more balancing." Kakashi-sensei drawled, from his usual spot under a tree, reading his regular porn.  
"Y'know what, why don't we stand on you?!" Naruto yelled, just as Sasuke's arms gave way.  
"Yeah," Sasuke agreed darkly and narrowed his eyes at Kakashi-sensei, who quickly closed his book and sat up straight. "You're part of the team, too, sensei."  
"I'm your teacher," Kakashi-sensei said slowly, "a jonin. I don't need teamwork training."  
"Get him, teme!"  
"Hn."

Just as the two lunged for Kakashi-sensei, who immediately stood up and formed the first hand-sign for his favourite substitution jutsu, someone barged onto the training field.

It was Sakura.

Her hair was in complete disarray, hanging in clumps from a disorganized bun. Her familiar qipao dress was on backwards. She didn't have her weapon's pouch, and her forehead protector wasn't anywhere in sight, either. She looked pale, like she hadn't slept all night. There was an ink stain on her left cheek and what looked like a forming bruise right in the center of her forehead.

Naruto and Sasuke openly gaped at her, while Kakashi-sensei frowned.

"Naruto!" Sakura screeched, and Naruto immediately flinched.  
"Whatever it is I didn't do it, 'ttebayo! I've been here all day!"  
"Come with me!" Sakura continued, hurriedly grabbed Naruto's left arm and began dragging him away. "I have to show you something!"  
"Unless it's the meaning of life, it's no reason to bail in the middle of training." Kakashi-sensei drawled.  
"Just shove it, sensei!" Sakura yelled, "come on, Naruto! Move faster!"

Naruto could only comply. Sakura had his arm in a death grip, and he was worried she might rip it off. Seeing as she'd gotten much better in taijutsu lately, mostly thanks to Lee training with her at least once a week, it was a very real concern.

The two quickly disappeared from seeing and hearing range, leaving behind a confused pair of shinobi.

* * *

"Why's it the library?!" Naruto protested.

Sakura hissed for Naruto to shut up and promptly dragged him inside. She'd dragged him through the shelves all the way to the familiar table where they still occasionally read up on chakra control together. Sakura shoved Naruto into a seat and handed him a wrinkled, old mission report.

"I found this by accident." She said shakily and sat down, too. "I was looking for scrolls about beginner's genjutsu. Y'know, since I'm a genjutsu type, and everything."  
"Yeah, like Tenten said you should." Naruto remembered.

They'd met Lee's teammate Tenten at his birthday party months ago. It wasn't an immediate friendship between either of them: Tenten's parents were civilians. She heard enough about Naruto to be weary, and she wasn't sure what to make of the Haruno girl with pink hair. It's only after Tenten realised they were the two Lee joined for part of his morning run, that she'd significantly warmed up to them.  
It was several weeks after this, that Tenten and Sakura started to hang out separately. Tenten was smart, older, and a girl, which immediately made her interesting in Sakura's eyes. She was also raised in a civilian household, and that was a rare thing to have in common in their chosen profession. Sakura introduced Tenten to Ino, and the three formed a little clique for occasionally hanging out on the weekends or their days off. Read: gossip, shop and gossip some more.  
Tenten was the one who'd pointed out Sakura should actually bother with genjutsu, after Sakura mentioned offhandedly that she was labeled a genjutsu type by the academy's instructors. Ino backed Tenten up, and Sakura found herself curious enough to check out the idea. After all, Kakashi-sensei had used genjutsu to eliminate her during his stupid bell test. With her aptitude for the art, it shouldn't have been so easy to do. But the Sakura back then was completely useless. Now, she swore to never be.

"Yeah." Sakura nodded. "Anyway, just – just read the name at the bottom."

Naruto did.  
Then he read it thrice more, put the report down to gape at Sakura, read it again and promptly pinched himself.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "I couldn't believe it, either."  
'I still don't!' Inner Sakura squeaked, 'what does this even mean?!'

The report was a long, boring detail of an errand preformed at the capitol, for over a month. It entailed techniques Sakura didn't recognize and had no idea what they related to, as the writer didn't bother to do more than put down the names. At the bottom of the boring scroll was signed a chunin kunoichi. Her name was what Sakura wanted Naruto to see.

Her name was Uzumaki Kushina.

Uzumaki, spelled the exact same way as Naruto's last name.

"I couldn't find anything else about her." Sakura told Naruto quietly. "I searched all night. Had to bribe the chunin on duty to let me stay. I couldn't find her in any other mission scroll from the entire year. It's why I was late. I wanted to know who she was – I wanted to be able to tell you, Naruto, but I don't know, I couldn't find anything –"  
'You're rambling.' Inner Sakura pointed out sourly.  
"Sakura-chan," Naruto cut her off and Sakura slowly looked up into his eyes.

They held the familiar determined sparkle, and a less familiar glow of… of hope.

"Let's find her!" Naruto exclaimed, "together we'll definitely find her! Believe it!"  
"Believe it!" Sakura agreed.  
'I don't believe shit.' Inner Sakura groused, but Sakura wasn't listening.

Naruto and she were already storming those old mission reports, dedicated to their new mission.

* * *

When two weeks of afternoon search sessions yielded absolutely nothing, Sakura suggested extending their search into he weekend. In a completely uncharacteristic move that would probably never repeat itself, Naruto agreed. He reported to the library an hour before Sakura did and stayed there later than her, too.  
"No one's waiting for me at home, anyway." Naruto pointed out in a muffled voice, nearly buried beneath a stack of dusty paperwork. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, go home!"  
Sakura went home, but she worried anyway. The next week, she'd canceled her plans with Ino and joined Naruto in the library for his entire stay. She didn't reschedule her plans. Sakura was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of reports they had to get through, so incredibly pissed off they still hadn't found anything, that she'd become obsessed with succeeding. Nothing else interested her anymore. The only reason Naruto and she didn't stop their morning training was because they knew if they enter the library, they won't come out until it closes.

Which inevitably would mean them missing out team training and work.

Which would annoy Sasuke and eventually register with Kakashi-sensei.

The last time Kakashi-sensei noticed them doing anything out of the ordinary – that is, attending Lee's birthday party – he looked like he might have a heart attack and then disappeared on them for four days. Since then Sakura had made a conscious decision to avoid surprising her sensei in any way, unless absolutely impossible.

As it stood, Sakura and Naruto were beginning weekend four of their research frenzy and they fully expected to come up with nothing, again, but were determined to carry on.

Only, Ino 'Pig' Yamanaka had enough of being stood up.

"What the fuck?!" Ino hissed.

Even her relatively quiet outrage scared Sakura enough to drop the report she's been reading, and Naruto actually jumped up in surprise. Outside the two of them, the library was absolutely deserted.  
Before their conquered table stood a fuming Ino, hands on her hips and eyes practically bulging. Shikamaru stood to her right, looking bored out of his mind. Choji was to her left, visibly uncomfortable. It was clear neither boy came willingly, but neither was brave enough to refuse Ino.

"You ditched me for a month to read some stinking tome?!" Ino's voice gradually rose in volume, "are you kidding me, forehead?!"  
"Would you shut up?" Sakura growled and waved at the shinobi on duty, who briefly straightened from his nap to glare at them disapprovingly. "I'm not reading a tome! I'm researching!"  
"It's the same thing!"  
"Oh, my god, Pig!" Sakura huffed, "it's really important, okay?"  
"Yeah, it really is, 'ttebayo." Naruto agreed seriously.

Shikamaru and Choji gaped at his unusual behaviour. Ino brushed it aside.

"What the hell is more important than your best friend, Sakura?"  
"I found another Uzumaki."

That shut Ino up.  
It also earned Shikamaru's complete attention and Choji's focus, too.

"Sakura-chan found this." Naruto shoved the original report into Ino's hands and then promptly buried his nose back in the one he was currently reading. "Look at the signature."  
"Uzumaki Kushina?" Ino read aloud. "I've never heard that name."  
"You don't know all shinobi in the village, Ino." Sakura pointed out.  
"No, Sakura, I mean I never, ever, heard that name." Ino emphasized, "not even during… training."

Ah.

'That means she's probably dead.' Inner Sakura surmised. 'If Ino never heard about her from Mr. Yamanaka when he's training her in their freaky jutsu.'  
'I'm not telling Naruto that!'  
'Duh!' Inner Sakura huffed, 'no way, it'll break him. Better find something, anything first.'

"We have to find something more, Ino." Sakura said quietly and glanced at Naruto's crouched back. "I have to."

Ino frowned.

"We'll help." Choji deadpanned.  
"Yeah." Shikamaru agreed.

Ino turned to yell at them, but both boys leveled her with a flat glare and then looked pointedly at Naruto. Ino waved her arms in frustration, dragged a chair over and seized a file from Sakura's little mount of materials.

"Thank you," Sakura whispered.  
"Yeah, yeah," Ino rumbled and then smiled slightly. "Don't mention it."

* * *

Even with Team 10's help, it took them another three weeks to find anything at all.

When they did, it was completely by accident.

Choji had gotten bored with the mission reports and discovered there were several shelves dedicated to academy graduation documentation. He'd immediately looked them up.

"Eh, Sakura, I didn't know you got number one in all the written exams!" Choji exclaimed. "And Ino, you're third?!"  
"What's with that tone of disbelief, eh, Choji?!" Ino growled.  
"Sakura-chan's really smart, dattebayo!" Naruto said proudly. "And she's got super great chakra control! And she can pack a punch, now, too!"  
"Waddaya mean _now_, you brat?" Sakura hissed playfully.  
"Eh, Sakura-chan, I'm joking! Joking!"  
"Oi, they even have Asuma-sensei's records!" Choji exclaimed.  
"No way!" Ino squealed. "How'd he do?"  
"Best in his year, obviously." Shikamaru drawled. He'd moved over to read the little booklet in Choji's hands. "Oi, Sakura, Naruto. Your teacher's Asuma-sensei's age, right?"  
"I think so, why?" Sakura wondered.  
"He's not in his graduating class."  
"What?" Naruto blinked, "what, did he graduate late? I bet he was an idiot!"

Choji rummaged in the shelf for a few seconds before gasping.

"Some idiot," he whistled, "man, your sensei graduated when he was _six_. He apprenticed with the Yondaime Hokage from that age!"  
"He really is a genius, huh?" Shikamaru snorted. "Knew it."  
"No way!" Naruto yelped. "Let me see!"

The distraction was welcome after their string of failures, so Sakura indulged without whining. They looked up any other high-ranking ninja they knew. Lee's teacher, Might Guy, graduated with Asuma-sensei, the second in their year. Team 8's teacher, Kurenai Yuuhi, graduated three years later, fifth in her year. She was the only one alive now from that graduating class. The only one to make jonin. They were looking up their parents now, those who were shinobi at least, mostly to compare themselves to them.

That's when Choji yelped, loudly.

"I found her! I found her!" he waved a barley touched booklet in the air excitedly and brough it over to their table, quickly opened it to the necessary page and pointed a chubby finger at the name. "Here! Uzumaki Kushina, transferred from Uzushiogakure. Graduated third in her year."  
"Move!"

Immediately the remaining four began to scuffle over the booklet, each determined to see it for themselves. Sakura won, purely because Naruto was too stunned to really participate.

The girl wasn't twelve, there was no way. She looked to be eight, maybe ten if Sakura stretched it. Then again, this was dated a little before the Second Shinobi World War. Genin graduated quickly back then. Uzumaki Kushina had deep red hair, a round face and dark eyes. She was possibly the cutest girl her age Sakura had seen, other than Ino. Very pretty. And her smile – bright, energetic and openly mischievous – Sakura knew this smile.

This smile greeted her every morning for over a year, now.  
It's been directed at her since she began the academy aged five.  
It was Naruto's smile.

"Holly Shodaime." Ino whispered from behind Sakura, and Sakura knew her friend noticed the resemblance too.  
"Here, Naruto." Sakura handed Naruto the booklet and turned to look at Ino.

Ino's eyes were wide, but serious at the same time.

'We have to find her.' Inner Sakura demanded.  
"We have to." Sakura mouthed soundlessly.

Ino nodded shakily.

This girl, this Uzumaki Kushina, she was without doubt related to Naruto. She was old enough to be his aunt, his mother, even an older cousin. If they really stretched it, maybe his sister. But they were definitely related. And they had to figure out how.

"What's Uzushiogakure?" Naruto asked.  
"There's no such thing." Sakura deadpanned.  
"No, it says right here, that Uzumaki Kushina transferred from Uzushiogakure." Shikamaru said. "This was before the second war, right? So maybe back then there was an Uzushiogakure."

And the Uzumaki were from there.

Sakura would've kissed Shikamaru for connecting those dots, if it weren't for the incredible gross factor – she'd known him since she was three – and of course, her love for Sasuke.

"We need to find it." Shikamaru decided.

They couldn't argue the point.  
Their research abruptly gained a new goal.


	5. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

"You guys look terrible."

Sakura hummed, half in agreement, half just to make a sound, and continued to poke at her anmitsu dejectedly. From her spot beside Sakura, Ino didn't even bother to lift her head. She just raised one arm, flipped the speaker off and then promptly curled back in on herself, thoroughly exhausted and depressed.  
Tenten dragged a chair over and joined their little table at their favourite little tea place. She eyed both girls, the Banana-Strawberry duo as Tenten had dubbed them out of spite once, and clapped her hands loudly.

"Okay! Tell Master Tenten what's wrong!"

"What master?!" Ino immediately sat up and jabbed a little spoon at Tenten. "I don't see no master here!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Ino has returned from the land of the dead!" Tenten cheered dryly and Ino once again flipped her off, but this time she didn't immediately resume moping after. "So? What exactly happened? You're acting like somebody died."

"My brain died." Ino announced. "My brain and my motivation, both. I can't do this shit anymore."

"Well you're gonna!" Sakura exploded, "we can't quit! Naruto –"

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto!" Ino screeched. "All you care about lately is Naruto! What the fuck, Forehead?!"

Luckily they frequented this establishment enough that all employees were familiar with Ino's personality and Sakura's temper. No one came over.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Tenten waved both of them down and frowned. "Did something happen to Naruto?"

"No." Sakura groused. "But we're trying to help him figure something out."

"And we can't." Ino hissed. "We've been at it for two months. Anytime I see a scroll, I get PTSD, okay? I can't do this anymore. Worst thing is, I don't know which of you is worse: you, Dumb Blonde, or Shikamaru! You three are obsessed!"

"What are you trying to figure out?" Tenten asked curiously. "Maybe I can help. Or Guy-sensei."

"Fat chance." Sakura grunted. "We tried asking our teachers already."

"And our parents." Ino huffed.

"They all fucked off." Both muttered at the same time and then melted back into their seats.

"Wouldn't tell us squat." Ino complained. "And my dad definitely knows! He sucks at lying! But he just won't spill."

"Kakashi-sensei still ignores me, like I'm dead, or something." Sakura huffed. "And he keeps distracting Naruto whenever he tries to ask. It's really suspicious."

"Just tell me what it is." Tenten said, "won't make it worse, right?"

"Fair." Ino admitted.

"Ever heard of Uzushiogakure?" Sakura asked dryly, clearly not expecting any sort of answer.

The reaction was immediate.  
Tenten's eyes lit up, her cheeks flushed pink and she jumped to her feet with so much gusto she nearly flipped their table. Even the twin buns on her head seemed to vibrate excitedly.

"Have I heard of Uzushiogakure?" Tenten squeaked, "of course I have! I'm a sealing expert! They're the sealing gods of this world!"

Sakura's jaw dropped.

'No way.' Inner Sakure denied. 'No fucking way, is this so easy.'

"You're shitting me." Ino muttered. "We could've just asked you?!"

"Well, I've heard of it." Tenten suddenly deflated and sat back down demurely. "But there's not much to know. It used to be one of Konoha's best allies, over in Whirlpool Country. Then, during the Second Shinobi War, Uzushiogakure was completely wiped off. No one knows what exactly happened, just that Konoha got notified when it was already too late."

"How do you even know this?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Guy-sensei told me." Tenten shrugged. "I specialize in seals, so he felt I had to know, in case I ever came across it."

"There's really nothing else?" Ino moaned, "nothing at all?"

"Well, maybe in the Hokage Tower, since they were our allies." Tenten shrugged, "or down in the T&I archives."

'Like that helps,' Inner Sakura raged, 'we can't go there!'

"Maybe if we asked Sandaime-sama," Sakura mused, "he cares a lot about Naruto –"

"He obviously ordered everybody not to talk about it." Ino snapped. "Why else would daddy not tell me?"

That was probably true.  
Mr. Yamanaka told Ino everything, no matter the secrecy rank. She was his only heir, and she was definitely going to hear the Torture and Information forces when he retired. There was really no point in hiding anything from her, unless directly ordered to.

"I bet that damn bastard could dig something up." Tenten hummed thoughtfully. "But he won't, because he's a bastard."

"What bastard?" Ino wondered.

"Her other teammate." Sakura supplied. "I don't actually know his name. Tenten says he's a dick."

"Damn straight he is." Tenten huffed. "Just because he's got his bloodline limit and comes from his shit prestigious clan, thinks he's so clever –"

"What clan?"

"What bloodline limit?"

Sakura and Ino immediately turned to glare at the other, for asking a different question.  
Luckily for them, the answer was the same.

"Eh?" Tenten blinked. "DIdn't I already tell you? That bastard, he's Hyuuga Neji."

Hyuuga.

"Fuck yes!" Sakura cheered.

"Damn straight!" Ino screeched at the same time.

Tenten stared at them as if they've completely lost their minds. The two girls promptly dragged her out of the tea place and towards the training fields. Team eight didn't have a day off today and team eight was exactly who they needed.  
Well, just one member of that team.

* * *

Hinata was shyly twirling her thumbs and staring at her feet.

Tenten was studying the squirming girl like she was some sort of rare bug.

"No way." Tenten deadpanned. "You're that bastard's cousin?!"

"N-Neji-nii-san is not a b-b-bastard." Hinata stuttered softly. "H-h-his parents were p-p-properly m-married…"

"Eh, Hinata," Ino chuckled, "that's not what Tenten meant, exactly…"

"I know!" Hinata yelped forcefully, and then blushed in embarrassment. "I know nii-san isn't the easiest person to get along with, b-but…"

But he was still her cousin.

'She's too pure for this world.' Inner Sakura lamented.

"Anyway, that's not why we're here." Sakura said. "Hinata, do the Hyuuga have achives?"

Hinata blinked in surprise and frowned.

"Sakura-san," she said seriously. "I might've been disowned by my father, but I will not give away any information about my clan."

Her tone was resolute, though soft.

Sakura blanched.

"No! That's not it!" Sakura said hurriedly and Hinata frowned.

"N-no?"

"No!" Ino clarified. "We're looking for an old village. It's called Uzushiogakure. Since the Hyuuga are the noblest clan left in Konoha, we figured you might have information the library doesn't."

"Because everything else is inaccessible." Hinata said glumly. "I'm sorry, I can't –"

"It's for Naruto." Sakura cut her off. "Naruto's family might be from Uzushiogakure."

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata squeaked. "Naruto-kun might be f-from there?"

"Yeah." Sakura nodded, and told Hinata everything. From Uzumaki Kushina's report, to Uzushiogakure's non-existence in records.

Hinata listened very seriously and her expression hardened – an unbelievable sight to anyone who knew the soft, shy girl.

"I can't help you." Hinata said, but the determined glint in her eyes spoke otherwise. "But, I know someone who can. Come with me."

"Where are we going?" Tenten wondered.

"The academy." Hinata said seriously. "We need to find my sister."

Sister?

* * *

They found Hyuuga Hanabi easily enough. Or, rather, Hyuuga Hanabi found them and immediately launched herself at Hinata, babbling excitedly like only little kids could.

'This brat can help us?' Inner Sakura wondered.

'Shut up.' Sakura thought.

"Hanabi-chan," Hinata said softly, "I'm not here to play."

"I know, Onee-sama." The little girl smiled brightly. "You need my help, right?"

"Eh?" Hinata blinked, "how can you tell?"

"Your heartbeat's thirty percent faster than normal." The little girl said as she took a step back and straightened. Suddenly, she didn't seem quite so little anymore. Or innocent. "Your skin's flushed, too. And you brought people. Are they forcing you, Onee-sama?" Hanabi's eyes flashed into the Byakugan without any sort of warning and narrowed. "Are they bothering you?"

'What the fuck!' Inner Sakura shrieked.

Sakura couldn't agree more. What the hell kind of little girl was this?!

"That is definitely the bastard's cousin." Tenten said quietly.

"That ain't a kid." Ino mumbled, "what's with the killing intent?"

'Older-sister complex.' Inner Sakura deadpanned, though her voice was still shaky.

"No, no, Hanabi-chan!" Hinata grabbed onto her sister's shoulders to draw her attention. "They're my friends!"

"Eh?" Hanabi blinked, and the Byakugan faded away. "Onee-sama, you have friends?"

"Oi!" Ino snapped, "what the heck? Of course Hinata has friends!"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Sakura backed angrily, "Hinata's great!"

Hanabi blinked in surprise, as if she didn't expect them to defend her sister at all.

"Hanabi-chan, please." Hinata said softly. "Can you check something out for me?"

"What?" Hanabi asked suspiciously.

"If the elders have anything at all about Uzushiogakure."

Hanabi's eyes widened in surprise and then – then she smirked.

"Onee-sama, it'll cost you!" Hanabi announced cheekily. But she didn't say no. Instead, she skipped back into the academy, leaving the genin quartet behind without another word.

"So will she help?" Ino demanded.

"What does she mean, it'll cost you?" Sakura sked worriedly.

"She'll help." Hinata said confidently. "Hanabi-chan's been in the vaults a lot of times before. They never caught her."

"EH?!" Tenten exclaimed, "she's that good?"

"Of course." Hinata shrugged, completely uncaring. "Hanab-chan is a lot stronger than I am."

Sakura eyed the white-eyes girl and honestly, she had to disagree.  
She didn't think Hanabi was stronger than Hinata, not if what chakra she could sense from them meant anything. Hanabi's chakra was strong and confident, yes, but Hinata's chakra was strong, stead and completely restrained. Not even a bit leaked unnecessarily. Not a drop was wasted. Sakura could sense it only because she'd spent years as Hinata's classmate – from the time Hinata's chakra wasn't at all like this.  
No, Hanabi wasn't stronger than Hinata.  
Or at least, she shouldn't be.

* * *

Hanabi didn't disappoint.

About a week after they asked for help, Hinata barged onto team 7's training ground and quietly told Sakura they had to meet up urgently, and that it had to be someplace no one would bother them. That immediately ruled out their regular spot at the library. After a bit of confusion, Sakura suggested Naruto's apartment and said she'll iron out all the details and let Hinata know. After contacting everybody else, Choji said he'll bring snacks and Tenten volunteered to get drinks. Ino said she'll make sure Shikamaru arrived, and they agreed to sneak over that very evening. Naruto hurriedly left to tidy up – as he'd rightly suspected Sakura would strangle him if she ever got wind of how much he ignored her cleaning schedule.

So at ten in the evening Sakura quietly snuck out of her bedroom window, leaving a dormant clone in her bed.  
Naruto lived barely a ten minute's run from her. On the way she met up with Tenten and helped her carry the soft drinks she'd bought. Right beneath Naruto's building the ran into Ino, who was actually carrying a dead-asleep Shikamaru on her back.

Choji and Hinata were already inside.

Choji was setting up the snacks carefully while Naruto dragged over any spare blankets he could find. It was rather chilly, and the heating system in his apartment suspiciously stopped working. Sakura made a mental note to go threaten the landlord. As if he could read her thoughts, Naruto snickered a little darkly and asked if he could record it. Apparently, he didn't like his landlord much.  
Hinata was squirming on Naruto's sofa, looking half overjoyed to be where she was and half terrified for the exact same reason. Ino unceremoniously dumped Shikamaru on the floor and went over to try and calm Hinata down. After they placed the drinks down by Choji, Tenten and Sakura made their way over, too.

In the end, all four girls squeezed together on the couch, Naruto sat by Sakura's feet and bounced in place excitedly, Shikamaru dragged a chair over and Choji somehow built himself a throne of blankets to perch on. They sat quietly for a moment, allowing Hinata to collect herself.

"H-Hanabi-chan found this." Hinata carefully formed some signs and with a little poof of smoke, a tightly bound scroll landed in her lap. It was wrapped with blue fabric, much thicker than any scroll Sakura'd ever seen before, and was without label. Then again, with the Byakugan, no label was necessary. "At first I thought she'd memorize what we needed, but Hanabi-chan said… well, she s-said we'd best r-r-read it all."

Shikamaru finally looked awake.

When no one made a move to take the scroll, Ino snorted loudly, condescendingly, muttered something about 'cowards' and took the thing in her hands. She carefully unrolled it and began to read.

"Today, the red-haired bitch came into our new village and usurped the spot by the Shodaime's side." Ino read dryly, her tone implying exactly what she thought of that sentence.

"What the hell?" Naruto demanded.

"It's a series of records." Ino said and read a head quietly. "This, all the first part is about that red haired lady. Holly shit! It's about the Shodaime's wife, it's about Mito-sama!"

"Mito-sama was an Uzumaki?!" Choji yelped, "no way!"

"Way!" Ino said, "it's written right here – 'Uzumaki Mito gave birth to the son of the Shodaime over ten years ago, but no other child's been produced since. If she is barren now, her position can be usurped.' What jerks! Honestly!"

"Give me that." SHikamaru snatched the scroll away and read on silently, his eyes zooming over the words quickly. "It's like they were spying on her. Wait – I found her! Kushina's here, too!"

"What?" Naruto yelped.

"Today another Uzumaki came. Her name is Uzumaki Kushina. The girl is little, but her blood is pure and her chakra strong. They brought her to be Uzumaki Mito's heir. This girl will shoulder the burden of Mito-sama, and be this Konoha's sacrifice." Shikamaru read and then, suddenly, he dropped the scroll.

"Shika?" Choji asked worriedly.

"It's insane." Shikamaru said shakily. "It can't be true."

"What?" Tenten asked.

Sakura noticed Naruto was pale and shaking, so she put a hand over his shoulder and squeezed. He looked at her, his eyes round, and she gave him a determined smile. Whatever it was, they were int his together. For some reason, her determination made Naruto shake worse.

"At some point, Mito-sama sealed the Nine Tails." Shikamaru said and everybody stopped breathing. "It wasn't mentioned before, but the person that recorded this specifically said," he picked up the scroll and read on in a whisper. "Only strong Uzumaki blood can do this duty, we the Hyuuga acknowledge this. A month from now, Mito-sama will unseal the devil in her flesh and pass it on to her youngest cousin, the one who is most like her. Uzumaki Kushina will become the new prison of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox!"

Naruto promptly stood up and ran to the bathroom.  
Everyone could hear him throwing his guts up, but no body could blame him. Honestly, they'd have done the same, if they could move. After a long minute, only Hinata moved. She stood up, picked up a bottle of sweet tea and softly padded her way into the bathroom. They didn't hear Hinata say anything, but Naruto thanked her, and they heard what sounded like patting on a shoulder. Then, Hinata and Naruto retuned together, both looking grim.

"Please continue, Shikamaru-san." Hinata said softly. She sat down on the floor next to Naruto, in a quiet show of support, though her entire face was deep red shade. Sakura slid down too, to sit on Naruto's other side, and reached behind him to grasp Hinata's hand in thanks.

Shikamaru nodded and scanned the scroll for a while longer.

"It tracks Kushina's progress." He said slowly. "Says she would've graduated top in her year, but she attended with the Yondaime Hokage and Hyuuga Hiashi."

Hinata flinched at the name, and Sakura squeezed her hand again.

"Made Chunin when she was ten," Shikamaru summarized, "and Jonin by sixteen. It only took her so long because she's a sealing mistress, and they progress slowly. She led a team, but didn't teach. Ah, the Sanin Jiraiya was close with her – they often worked seals together. That's weird. She retired at twenty one, no reason given."

"Anything else?" Ino drawled.

"Hold your sass." Shikamaru sneered and then, he dropped the scroll again. This time, his eyes moved to Naruto, who was staring at him with a desperate expression, as if he was completely terrified of what Shikamaru might say. Shikamaru swallowed thickly and shook his head. "Naruto – man. I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Naruto asked with obviously fake cheer.

When Shikamaru made no move to answer, Choji picked up the scroll and after a moment, he began reading in a grave tone.

"The unthinkable happened. Someone leaked Uzumaki Kushina's condition and despite the heavy security, despite the Yondaime Hokage's presence, the birthing chamber was infiltrated. The seal broke and the Nine Tails escaped. The Sandaime doesn't divulge the details, but what we know is this: Uzumaki Kushina restrained the demon with the last of her power and the Yondaime Hokage sacrificed his life to seal it again in the body of the only available Uzumaki left. Uzumaki Kushina's son is the new sacrifice for this Konoha. The boy is named Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

Sakura nearly fainted.  
Ino and Tenten both jumped to their feet and backed away, clearly in shock. Choji was staring at the scroll, as if willing it to rewrite itself. Shikamaru was still staring at Naruto. Naruto was looking at the floor, defeated. He wasn't surprised.

"Naruto-kun." Hinata said softly, and Naruto flinched. "You already knew?"

"I – " Naruto swallowed thickly. "Iruka-sensei… told me… about the fox."

The fox.  
Sakura's vision seemed to blur  
She remembered raging red chakra, sharp claws an untameable killing intent.

'_I'll kill you! I'll kill you!'  
_

The Nine Tailed Fox.  
Naruto had the Nine Tailed Fox inside him!

'Without choice,' Inner Sakura said blankly. 'Before he even had a chance to be something else.'

"Monster." Sakura said frostily.

Naruto flinched.

"What did you just say?" Shikamaru demanded, his voice low.

"I said, the Yondaime Hokage is a monster!" Sakura exploded. "How could he? How the hell could he? Who puts that kind of thing in a baby? Who did he think he was, to destroy Naruto's life like that?!"

Ino and Tenten blinked in surprise, and then frowned, as if Sakura's words never occurred to them on their own.

"No wonder all those people are mean to you!" Sakura screeched. "They know! Everybody older than us knows, and they're too stupid to understand what it means! It's all the Yondaime's fault, isn't it?!"

Naruto was gaping at her, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Not the Yondaime." Hinata said softly, "b-but that person who infiltrated, who b-broke the s-seal on K-K-Kushina-sama."

"Yeah!" Choji exclaimed. "It's whoever betrayed the secret's fault! The Yondaime probably didn't have a choice, right? He and Kushina went to school together, they must've known each other well! Everybody says he was the best Hokage, that he treated all the villagers like his family!"

"That's not the point!" Ino snapped. "The point is, somebody fucked up, and Naruto has to pay for it! Man, this makes me wanna kill somebody!"

"Damn straight!" Tenten huffed. "Oi, Naruto! Chin up!"

"Chin up?" Naruto repeated blankly. "You guys – you're not… scared of me?"

"Naruto." Ino said dryly. "I've seen you snort jellies through your nose. I'm never going to be scared of you."

"You're scared of me." Sakura supplied snootily. "Why would I be scared of you?"

"You guys! Dattebayo!" Naruto yelped and somehow managed to tackle all of them into a massive group hug, even the red-faced Hinata, who promptly fainted.

* * *

As they gathered around the unconscious Hinata, and Naruto who was bawling his eyes out, the dark secret they just discovered didn't feel so heavy. After all, Nine Fox or not, Naruto was still their Naruto.  
And hey, they've just found his **mother**.


	6. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto only.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

Life goes on.

They kept the scroll stolen by Hanabi, but only Shikamaru was interested in studying it further. Before they went home that night, they took an oath to never, ever, reveal what they've discovered unless Naruto said they could. They no longer spent their weekends in the library, though Sakura continued to go during the week – she had genjutsu to research, after all. Sometimes, Naruto joined her, but he was doing his own thing now, reading up on fuuinjutsu.

Sakura had never, ever, seen Naruto so absorbed by honest studying before. He dedicatedly read every beginner's scroll and actually took notes in his sloppy writing. The first time Naruto attempted a sealing jutsu, he did it under Tenten's tense supervision, with Lee cheering wildly on the sidelines and Sakura observing curiously. He failed so spectacularly; he couldn't even draw his chakra. He failed on the tenth, twenties and fortieth attempts, too.

Tenten was stumped. According to Shikamaru, that Hyuuga scroll made it quite clear the Uzumaki were unparalleled, unbeatable, completely impossible to challenge, when it came to fuuinjutsu. They were the true masters of the craft, to the point it could almost be considered their kekkei genkai, their blood limit. And yet, Naruto, who was guaranteed to be at the very least 50% pure Uzumaki, who's mother was a sealing genius that restrained the Nine Tails even at death's door, couldn't put a kunai in a scroll.

If it was Sakura, she'd get pissed and abandon he entire thing.

Naruto though – Naruto grit his teeth, tackled Kakashi-sensei the next morning and demanded at the top of his lungs to be taught, or else. For some reason, as Naruto flew off the metaphorical handle as he roared and flailed, something about Kakashi-sensei seemed to change. Sakura couldn't see his face because of that damn mask, but his eyes seemed to glaze over, then they focused again, then they softened. He let Naruto run rampant for a while longer, before he brought forth a tattered little handbook, handed it to the surprised blonde and told him very seriously to prepare.

Sasuke watched the exchange with furrowed eyebrows, and when Sakura patted Naruto on the back and told him he'll definitely succeed, Sasuke seemed to sneer at them both.

Then Naruto did what Naruto does best.

He fucked up.

* * *

"Hey, Sakura-chan, you'll ace it, too! You'll definitely get the hang on genjutsu, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura would've killed him.

Sasuke looked at her as if she was insane. And also a little bit as if she was the scum of the earth. Afterall, katon jutsu aside, genjutsu was an Uchiha talent without doubt. His scorn made her feel small. Made her feel useless, again.

Surprisingly, though, Kakashi-sensei hummed thoughtfully, eyed her up with very open suspicion and then asked her a question.

"Sakura-chan, you're on a mission. One teammate's kidnapped, and you can either save them or complete the mission. What do you do?"

"I save them." Sakura said immediately, thinking that if Sasuke was to be kidnapped, she'll give her life for his.

If Naruto was taken away, she'll rip those who dared do it limb from limb, and drag him back.

'Damn straight!' Inner huffed.

"What if they're guarded? If you're outclassed completely?" Kakashi-sensei prodded.

"Cast a genjutsu." Sakura said after a long moment of thought. "Cause a distraction. If I'm alone, I can't fight them, but I can distract them. Distract them long enough till my teammate's conscious and we can escape."

"What if your teammate's already dead?"

Sakura blinked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes when she didn't immediately answer, and Naruto raised a foot, probably to kick him.

'That's even easier, honestly.' Inner muttered.

It was.

"Cast genjutsu." Sakura repeated, and thought about what she'd do if Ino was taken from her. If Tenten was taken from her. If Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke or Naruto were ever taken from her. She thought about Momochi Zabuza, raining death after Haku's death on that bride in Wave Country. She thought about Naruto, cloaked in red chakra, wrecking havoc after Sasuke was pierced by hundreds of ice needles. She tried to put herself in their shoes. She only had one answer to what she'd do, if she was in their shoes. "_Break_ them."

Sasuke and Naruto gaped.

Kakashi-sensei's eyes crinkled in a smile.

He started teaching her, too.

* * *

As stated before, life goes on.

Team 7 was allowed to go on C-Rank missions now.

The first mission was difficult, the second a little less so. By the twentieth one, they'd picked up a rhythm. The first time Sakura successfully hid them under genjutsu, and Naruto sealed up their precious cargo so it would be impossible to locate by outsiders, Sasuke gave them the closest thing to a smile they'd ever seen. Kakashi-sensei even bought the whole team dinner after that mission.

Their teamwork was really, truly, going great.

Sakura finally understood what Ino was talking about, when she went on and on about how amazing it was, being a part of Ino-Shika-Cho. How great it was to feel needed, important.

Kakashi-sensei let Sakura strategize with him, because neither Naruto nor Sasuke had the focus to do it properly. Naruto trusted Sakura with his back. Sasuke listened when Sakura hesitantly gave advice about his techniques.

Kakashi-sensei made a habit of stopping by Sakura's favourite anmitsu stand, when they did particularly well on a mission.

Naruto finally gave in and sometimes joined Sakura and her parents for dinner. Her mother thought Naruto was a whole hoot, and when her mother liked somebody, Sakura's father shut his mouth and liked them, too.

Sasuke started walking part of the way with Naruto and Sakura in the morning, and after training. He even deigned to join them for ramen, or bbq, and actually said more than two words. Granted, he spoke dryly and to the point – but he spoke. He spoke _with_ Sakura, not _at_ her. If her heart could give way, it would.

A year ago, it probably would have, too.

But now Sakura just smiled brightly, transferred her tomatoes to Sasuke and secretly piled extra meat on Naruto's portions without a word. She quietly slipped Kakashi-sensei premium paper glue, when she noticed his Icha-Icha was looking more frayed than usual, and in return he took to patting her on the head as a form of greeting.

'We are _so_ his favourite.' Inner Sakura mused, they watched Kakashi-sensei lay into Naruto and Sasuke for getting into a fight, again. Sakura had instigated this one, actually, but Kakashi-sensei had seamlessly twisted it around and laid the blame solely by the boys' feet. Judging by Sasuke's incredulous expression, he'd noticed and couldn't believe it was happening. Naruto didn't even care, he just wanted to punch Sasuke some more.

'You know what,' Sakura thought, 'you might be right.'

If so, she totally earned it.

And she was never giving the position up.

* * *

Despite their strengthening bonds as a team, neither Sakura nor Naruto, by mutual agreement, breached the subject of Uzushiogakure or the Uzumaki Clan with Kakashi-sensei. He'd avoided them too thoroughly before, to the point Sakura suspected the subject might be a little bit too personal.

She brought it up only once to Naruto.

"Y'know, since Kakashi-sensei's been the Yondaime's apprentice since he was six, and the Yondaime went to school with your mom…" she tilted her head, "do you think Kakashi-sensei knew your mom, Naruto?"

Naruto chewed on his cup noodles thoughtfully and then nodded.

"Yeah, he probably did."

"Then why didn't he tell us?" Sakura huffed.

"Probably can't." Naruto said with a shrug.

"Don't you care?"

"I do," Naruto scratched his head with the clean ends of his chopsticks. "But, y'know, Sakura-chan. I think that if it was you who died, or Ino, or Hinata, I wouldn't wanna talk about it either 'ttebayo. Kaka-sensei was anbu, right? Shikamaru said so."

"Yeah." Sakura grew solemn suddenly. "You think he was part of the guard? For your birth? since the Yondaime was there it makes sense."

"Shikamaru thinks so." Naruto supplied.

"Then he 99% guaranteed was." Sakura deadpanned.

"Yep." Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, Sakura-chan. I think we should leave him alone. Maybe he's feeling guilty, dattebayo."

Actually, Kakashi-sensei might actually be feeling guilty.

So they left him alone and never asked. Kakashi-sensei never asked them either. He just steadily taught Naruto what little he knew about fuuinjutsu, and he helped Sakura get a handle on most basic genjutsu.

* * *

For Sakura, genjutsu were as easy as breathing, now that someone was teaching her. She didn't always have the chakra for it, but she always had the control. Always understood. Could now layer up to four basic genjutsu together so seamlessly, sometime even Kakashi-sensei couldn't tell they were there. She kept her achievements between her and team 7 though. She didn't brag to either Ino or Tenten.

Why?

Because, eighteen months after the formation of Team 7, Kakashi-sensei signed them up for the Chunin Exams.

And as Sakura was tasked with researching the hell out of the exam by a serious Sasuke and an excited Naruto, she tasked her idiot boys with something else: keeping quiet. Because Sakura already knew one thing about these exams: they were first and foremost, a competition. If no one knew you were going to compete, no one knew to watch out for you. And that was an advantage.

So team 7 collectively acted like Kakashi-sensei did them dirty and wouldn't let them register for the exam.

Ino constantly mocked Sakura, with the same enthusiasm Kiba used to laugh at Naruto and Sasuke for not being signed up. Tenten and Lee graciously told them not to worry, and that they could definitely do it the next year. Hinata stutteringly wished them both good luck, and that's when Sakura realised that girl was definitely more talented than anybody ever thought.

After all, Kakashi-sensei was in on the lie, too, and Hinata still didn't fall for it.

Either way, now team 7 was on their very own mission.

Pay attention, gather information and prepare.

The Chunin Exams were coming.

They were definitely going to get promoted!


	7. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 7

**A/N**

Could it be that we're finally at the plot?  
Is this really going down?  
Havewemadeityet?!

Yes. Yes to all of the above.

**Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

It was all posturing, really.

The Chunin Exams.

Luckily, Team 7 possessed a sort of natural flair when it came to being utter dicks.

* * *

"This exam is first and foremost a competition for clients." Kakashi-sensei said flatly about a month before the Chunin Exams, as Team 7 was camping out after a rather dull C-Rank. "It's an opportunity for the participating villages to flaunt their new recruits."

"It's a business transaction." Sakura deduced. "The villages flash the goods and the clients decide which they're buying."

Kakashi-sensei nodded.

"That… makes me feel a lil' weird, dattebayo." Naruto said slowly.

"I am not merchandise." Sasuke deadpanned with an angry frown.

"You are." Kakashi-sensei said sharply. "We are shinobi, and shinobi are property of their village. Konoha rents us to clients, that is our main use."

Sasuke's frown twisted into an ugly scowl, as if he completely disagreed with what Kakashi-sensei just said.

Sakura couldn't blame him, not really, but she already knew this.

Her mother had screamed this in her face, when Sakura was just five years old and decided to follow Ino to the Ninja Academy.

'_You want to be a thing? You want to be traded like a piece of cloth, and pay with your life?!'_

Sakura's mother reminded her of this every year until Sakura graduated, then her mother only shook her head and said: _'you life isn't yours now. I hope you're satisfied.'_

Sakura was satisfied back then.

She was still satisfied, even now.

Because as much as Konoha took from her shinobi, it also gave back.

Sakura firmly believed in this.

"So the exam's basically a bidding show." Sakura said, obviously trying to lighten the mood. "How do we win?"

"You stand out." Kakashi-sensei said flatly. "But not too much. You need to look promising enough that the client believes you can do anything they ask, but also not _too_ competent, so that you're not a threat. For Konoha you need to prove you're more than genin – strength wise and brain wise." Here he leveled Naruto and Sasuke with an unimpressed look. "It requires an attention span of longer than ten seconds."

"Huh?" Naruto blinked, clearly having not listened to a single word.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Sakura felt Kakashi-sensei's exasperation as if it was her own.

"Just remember to watch your backs." Kakashi-sensei said finally. "Some of the participants… they won't be genin, nor true allies. Keep your guard up, and be on your worst behaviour."

"Sir yes sir, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto saluted, delighted with the permission to misbehave.

"Hn." Sasuke smirked darkly and nodded his head.

"Honestly sensei," Sakura smiled brightly, and Kakashi-sensei chuckled. "We're _always_ on our worst behaviour."

* * *

They made it to the first stage of the exams much earlier than everybody else, but only showed themselves when it was truly crowded. Kakashi-sensei told them to make themselves noticed. If they're not noticed and not remembered, they can't be promoted. So Team 7 unanimously decided to use _him_ to their advantage.

After all, what's more memorable than the first ever students of the Legendary Copy Nin?

Sakura bound her pink hair as tightly as she could, to the point the skin around her eyes felt tighter than ever. Sasuke pulled back his own bangs as well, mostly to draw attention to his Sharingan – which he'd kept on from the moment they were seen. Naruto now carried a sealing scroll on his back, similar to Tenten's but thrice as big and not at all _standard_. It was stuffed to the brim with the nastiest things Kakashi-sensei could get his hands on, and money (Sakura's money) could buy. It was almost cheating, but the goal was to be promoted – not to play fair.

For effect, the three of them copied Kakashi-sensei's clothing: simple black shinobi pants and shirts, blue sandals and weapon pouches on their thighs, forehead protectors tied perfectly on their foreheads and fingerless gloves. Only the family crests on their backs differentiated the attire.

And so it was that Team 7, each a personalized copy of the famed Hatake Kakashi, calmly glided through the gaping crowd of genin. Sakura dully noted that from all the foreigners, at least one genin glared at them as if they've personally slaughtered a puppy before their eyes.

Perhaps using Kakashi-sensei, who was not very much liked for the arguably justifiable reason of being a glorified murderer, as a style model wasn't a stroke of brilliance on her part. But it worked.

"Oi!" Kiba yelled, "you assholes! What're you doing here?"

"Take a guess, dog-breath." Naruto snarked, in a perfect imitation of Sasuke. He'd taken Kiba's constant mocking to heart and was nowhere near calm enough to act civil yet.

Sasuke snorted.

Sakura rolled her eyes and started climbing to the next floor, closely tailed by her teammates.

"Sakura-chan," Tenten's voice drew her attention. "Where are you going? The exam starts here."

Sakura eyed Tenten's curious expression for a moment, and noted both Lee and Tenten didn't seem the slightest bit irritated that they'd been lied to. Lee was actually excitedly congratulating Naruto on making it to the exams after all, bless him.

Behind them skulked a white-eyed boy, almost femininely pretty.

'Must be the bastard.' Inner noted curiously. 'YOu know what, Tenten's right. He does have that prissy vibe, even from all the way here.'

"The exam's not here." Sakura said flatly, while desperately trying to keep her eyes diverted from the white-eyed boy, lest she erupt into giggles.

"This is the second floor." Naruto agreed, while making rude gestures at Kiba, who was being held back by both a calm Shino and a red-faced Hinata, who'd been enthusiastically hugged by Naruto not even a moment earlier. Keeping Kiba in line was probably the only thing keeping her conscious at the moment.

"Or are you lot so pathetic, you can't spot a genjutsu, hmm?" Sasuke finished, the pinwheels in his Sharingan spinning ominously in the direction of a strange trio wearing the Suna headband. They'd been eyeing Team 7 up a little bit too intensely, and it obviously grated on Sasuke's nerves..

As mayhem broke out all around them, Team 7 beat the hastiest retreat of their life to the third floor, where all three exhaled in relief.

"Right." Sakura said. "This is where it really starts."

"Hn." Sasuke nodded.

"I won't mess up." Naruto promised seriously, "I won't, 'ttebayo!"

'You bet your ass!' Inner Sakura screeched, 'we spent two weeks teaching you!'

More like beating him up with all the academic knowledge Naruto somehow managed to avoid remembering. Since Naruto learns best through his fists, Kakashi-sensei gave Sakura and Sasuke permission to do whatever they thought necessary until Naruto assimilated at the very least a passable amount of necessary information.

Sasuke took this permission to beat Naruto up very seriously, and got down to it with gusto. Sakura supervised, a little.

"We can do it, dattebayo!" Naruto cheered.

"We got this." Sakura agreed.

'Damn straight!'

"En."

They exchanged sharp nods and each went into their separate examination room, as prepared as they could ever be to face the unknown.

* * *

The unknown was a written exam.

And all the questions were jonin level, or above.

Sakura could answer these questions, no problem. She could probably land at the very least a 95% correct rate, too. Being a bookworm and a paper-ninja for most of her life paid off. But her teammates?

'This is rigged. Naruto's gonna fail.' Sakura thought in a horrified tone.

'Just Naruto?' Inner Sakura snarked back. 'Mistress Uchiha's going to flunk.'

'Sasuke can copy off someone who knows what's up, with his Sharingan.' Sakura mused anxiously.

'And Naruto's ballsy enough to not write squat rather than bullshit his way through.' Inner Sakura latched onto this line of thought hopefully. 'The point's to cheat, anyway. Naruto's got years of experience.'

'That's fair. Assuming anyone in their classrooms _knows_ the answers.' Sakura fretted, sinking her self-made boat of hope.

'Speaking off, Ino's watching us.'

'I know.' Sakura huffed, 'it's why I'm not writing anything. She wants to cheat off us.'

'Then let's screw her over, yeah!'

Sakura blinked.

Then she smirked.

Then she wrote down the worst exam of her life.

* * *

From that point it was really no big deal.

The proctor announced the trick tenth question and Sakura briefly considered laughing hysterically when he did. The test she so carefully tricked Ino into failing, only to completely rewrite it herself, was just a distraction.

'Underneath the underneath, huh?' Inner Sakura snorted.

This wasn't about information gathering skills.

This was about teamwork!

"What about you, pinky?" the proctor hissed, having reached Sakura in his attempt to scare the participants off. "You taking your chances?"

"Of course!" Sakura said proudly. "My team won't fail."

"What makes you so sure?" he growled.

"Our sensei doesn't like failures." Sakura bluffed, purposefully reminding everyone in the room just who mentored Team 7. It was both to irritate and to threaten, as if Sakura was saying: _we're different from the start, we're not even on the same playing field. Ah, but if you think you can do something about it, remember the exam's going to end eventually. And then Hatake Kakashi will hunt you down._

It worked.

At least half of the participants in her classroom immediately looked elsewhere, while before they were glaring openly at the pink-haired upstart. The other half eyed her suspiciously, as if considering just what this tiny thing could do to them.

'Me? Not much. Naruto and Sasuke? They can trash your asses.'

'Trash 'em good.' Inner Sakura agreed sadistically.

From the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Ino doing her utmost best to not break out in laughter. Afterall, Ino _knew_ Sakura was bluffing.

Kakashi-sensei couldn't do shit to anyone for something that happened during the exams. But most people didn't know that. And even if he could, he probably wouldn't, being the absolute lazy asshole that he was.

The proctor quickly moved on. When he was finished, only about a third of the original participants remained in the classroom.

* * *

"Damn Forehead," Ino teased, "you went ahead and tricked me."

"Sorry Pig," Sakura chuckled and offered Ino a shrug, "couldn't be helped."

"You sure your idiots are doing fine?"

"My idiots?" Sakura snorted, "what about yours?"

"Bold of your to assume they're in control."

Inner Sakura immediately perked up at this little slip up of Ino's, and Sakura did too.

If Ino could control Shikamaru and Choji without seeing them, without being in the same room, this meant Sakura severely underestimated Ino's control over the Mind Transfer Jutsu.

'We can't let our guard down.' Inner Sakura whispered.

'No, we can't.'

'She'd underestimating us,' Inner Sakura continued, 'revealing this much.'

'We're friends.' Sakura argued, 'Pig trusts us not to abuse the knowledge!'

'We're totally abusing it, though.'

'Duh!'

* * *

Five hours later, when Team 7 huddled in a little clearing on training ground 49, the Forest of Death, Sakura wasn't at all thinking about how to take advantage of Ino's mistake. The only thing she was thinking off was the terrible, terrible killing intent of those strange yellow eyes, far too malicious to belong on a young genin from Kusa. How those eyes greedily drank Sasuke up, as if he was good enough to eat, filled to the brim with a perverse joy Sakura could never, ever, understand or tolerate.

Those eyes were still out there, somewhere. Watching, waiting.

And Sakura?

She stood _alone_.


	8. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**8.**

If the Forest of Death was the stuff of nightmares in daytime, then at night it seemed to Sakura like hell on earth. The trees, the ground, the very air all felt vile, evil, corrupted to the point of no return. And yet, none of it could compare to those yellow eyes.

Even hours later, as Sakura dragged her unconscious teammates to someplace she could better protect, cold sweat still run down her face. Their encounter with that… thing was brief, faster than the time it took Naruto to wolf down a bowl of miso-ramen, but it permanently engraved itself onto Sakura's psych and she sincerely doubted the fear of it would ever fully leave her.

* * *

It shouldn't be like this.

Danger was expected in the exams, especially when they involved volatile territories such as Training Ground 49, but to be singled out and hunted down like rabbits less than twenty minutes into the second task?

They haven't even seen the hunter yet, but the sheer killing intent was enough to drive all three of them close to the breaking point. Sasuke's sharingan was spinning frantically, trying and failing to locate the threat. Naruto was growling and Sakura could've sworn his canines elongated, if only slightly, making it quite obvious the fox inside him wasn't feeling great either. Both boys kept Sakura firmly between them, Sasuke armed to the teeth with anything sharp and Naruto stationed to unleash the horrors in his sealing scroll.

Normally Sakura would be offended. She could go hand-to-hand with both her teammates and she was perfectly capable of outsmarting anyone even a little bit less sharp than Shikamaru. But now? Now, her legs were shaking so bad she could barely stand. She was covered in cold sweat, her heart hammered in her chest much too quickly and breathing was becoming difficult. She couldn't feel her chakra. Couldn't think anything more complicated than 'run, run, run'.

Even Inner Sakura was silent, hiding somewhere in the depths of Sakura's mind where nobody, Sakura included, could find her.

Then they came.

Two kicked Naruto and Sasuke apart, the third somehow slithered behind Sakura and flipped her to the ground. In a matter of seconds Sakura was down, arms bent backwards harshly and a foot at the centre of her back pressing her chest into the mud, her knees digging harshly into the earth. Naruto lasted twenty seconds longer, but was eventually wrestled into a tight headlock. Then Sasuke was kicked onto his knees, kept in place by two kunai, one at his neck and the other too close to his right eye for comfort.

"What the fuck?!" Naruto growled, "who the hell are you?"

"None of ya business." The one holding him hissed.

"This is boring." The one above Sakura complained. "Why are they special again?"

"_They_ ain't," the one behind Sasuke drawled. "Them pretty red eyes are."

"Hands off, cretin." Sasuke growled.

Instead, he got the kunai at his neck moving and promptly hissed in pain as a thin red line appeared. Naruto roared, kicked the guy restraining him in the knee and almost broke free – almost, except the guy holding Sakura suddenly pulled on her arms roughly and she screamed.

It worked like magic.

Both Sasuke and Naruto stopped struggling and looked over, as if they just now realised Sakura was also unable to move. As if they'd forgotten she was there.

'No, Naruto wouldn't forget,' Sakura thought, as his wide blue eyes settled on her. 'He thought I ran. To get help.'

Like she was supposed to do.

Those were their orders from Kakashi-sensei, given after the Naruto Bridge. Should they ever find themselves obviously outclassed, and death a very real possibility, they were to haul ass out of the situation. If they couldn't, Naruto and Sasuke were to hold any attack off to the best of their abilities – advanced beyond even the average chunin – while Sakura was to escape and get help.

But Sakura didn't have the time to escape.

Naruto and Sasuke couldn't even put up a fight.

And now, the guy above her started stomping his foot while he pulled on her arms and cackled.

"So we only need that red-eyed one?" he guffawed, "you mean, I can play with this one?"

"Seriously?" the guy behind Naruto sounded disgusted. "She's a _kid_."

"Not with an ass like that, she isn't."

Sakura felt her heart stop at that.

She saw clearly how Sasuke's eyes widened, how he paled and then tensed and began looking for any escape route with open panic – panic she'd never seen in him before. It would've been touching, that Sasuke actually cared for her, finally, but at the moment all she felt was stone cold horror.

Naruto caught on last, just as the man above her moved his foot and shoved it between Sakura's legs.

Red chakra exploded everywhere, and Naruto lunged.

He tossed the shinobi behind him straight at the one holding Sasuke and then dived, snarling and spitting, at the one who had threatened the only girl on Team 7. Naruto's bright blue eyes were an angry red, his familiar whisker-like marks jagged and angry, and if Sakura had bothered to concentrate at all she would've considered that the bubbling red chakra around him formed a pair of ears on Naruto's messy blonde head and two long tails. But Sakura wasn't concentrating. Sakura regressed into sheer survival mode.

She'd scrambled to her feet, made it to the stunned, gaping Sasuke, grabbed his hand and hauled him off in a random direction.

"Oi! That usuratonkachi –"

"It's fine!" Sakura yelled, "pump your chakra in your legs!"

"What –"

"Listen to me!" she shrieked, her tone obnoxiously hysterical, as she pumped every shred of chakra she could grasp through her leg muscles, desperate for speed. "We need to outrun it!"

"Outrun what?" Sasuke demanded, but he listened to Sakura's desperate instructions. He was in the lead now, with his stronger chakra gaining better results, even if his control over it was lacking still. "What the hell is going on? What happened to the dead last?"

"He's not dead last," Sakura grumbled immediately, her new response whenever Naruto was mocked. "He's going to be our best Hokage, I tell you!"

"Sakura!" Sasuke snapped.

"Later!" she pleaded, "we need to make it –"

"Tsk. Annoying." Sasuke pulled on Sakura's arm and threw her over his shoulder, like a sack of laundry. "Watch my back!" he ordered, and then their speed doubled.

Sakura swallowed back her indignation, kept her sight focused and slapped a hand over Sasuke's spine. Her chakra promptly joined his, as little as she could make it, solely there to fine-tune Sasuke's flimsy control over his own. They'd practised this before – well, Sakura and Naruto practised. Sasuke flat out forbade anyone from touch him. But he didn't have a choice now, and though he swore angrily, he didn't drop her.

Their entire exchange lasted less than three minutes.

They'd been running for a total of seven minutes when something smacked Sasuke's speeding body aside. Sakura crashed back first onto a tree and before she could even gasp in surprise Sasuke slammed into her front, knocking all breath out of her lungs and bruising her already abused ribs further.

'When did he get so heavy, goddammit?!' she thought spitefully, and then wondered how she had any spite remaining in this hellish place.

She couldn't hold on to her spite or surprise for long, because at that moment an overwhelming amount of killing intent washed over her.

A pair of unnatural yellow eyes, with snake-like slits for pupils, appeared in the dark of the trees and Sakura was paralysed, stuck in place like helpless pray, petrified, immobile – _useless_.

Sasuke attacked, and he was flung aside as if he was nothing. Then he was smacked around, as if for fun, before the monstrous creature opened his jaw and bit down on the juncture between Sasuke's neck and shoulder. Sasuke screamed and Sakura would've screamed, too, but she couldn't find her voice.

Then Naruto, still engulfed in that angry red chakra, flew into the fight, snarling and spitting. For a moment their assailant seemed surprised and Sakura would've sworn she'd seen apprehension flash in those yellow pits of hatred, but then Naruto was down – down before he could land a hit, down in less than a minute, sprawled on the ground by Sasuke's panting form.

"Well then." That thing spoke in a slithering, slimy voice, and patted Sasuke's face with it's foot. "Don't disappoint me, hmm?"

Then it left.

Without sparing Sakura a single glance.

* * *

'I'm not useless!' Sakura thought with a vicious sort of denial, as she finished tying together her makeshift hammock, spun out of flexible green branches, thin iron cords and Sakura's sacrificed shirt. She made sure the entire contraption was sturdy before swiftly climbing down from the tree where she'd hidden it and towards her still unconscious teammates. First, Sakura hauled Sasuke up and settled him in the hammock, then she brought up Naruto and their equipment – as Naruto weighed less than the last Uchiha, a fact Sakura learned that same day, the hard way.

With uncommon gentleness, Sakura tucked her teammates in, made sure they were entirely secure and wouldn't fall off, and then began to layer all hiding genjutsu in her arsenal over them with single-minded dedication only an A-type, anal-retentive instructor like Kakashi-sensei could foster.

Once her boys were safe, their heaven and earth scrolls divided between them, Sakura got down from the tree. She found two leaves, picked the spot easiest to defend in the little clearing and channelled chakra to create Kakashi-sensei's favourite brand of clone: when imbued into living things, chakra could circulate independently which made clones created by transforming leaves, or branched, or human bodies, less of a hassle. Leaves required little to no chakra, which was perfect in Sakura's situation.

Soon enough, Sakura's two clones obediently took on the guises of Naruto and Sasuke, and laid down on the ground in a dead-faint. Sakura herself picked out another tree, with a deceptively thin trunk but thick foliage, and hid herself amongst it's branches.

Thirty nerve-wrecking minutes later, Sakura had finished laying careful genjutsu over the whole area, merged seamlessly with her physical traps. Should anyone find them, they'd think Sakura was crouched protectively over her fallen teammates, her whole body shaking but alert. Only a sharingan would be able to tell there was a clump of genjutsu hiding something in one of the rickety trees.

And there Sakura crouched in wait.

Waiting for her boys to wake up.

Waiting for her unfortunate prey.

* * *

'If anyone tries to take Team 7 from me, I'll use my genjutsu and I'll _break_ them.'


	9. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER: NARUTO IS PROPERTY OF MASASHI KISHIMOTO. ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO HIM. The plot of this fanfiction is property of shefalls. if you wish to use it ASK.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**9.**

'Come on, assholes, I know you're out there.'

Sakura crouched in her hiding spot for close to ten hours, now. Her muscles hurt from being tensed for so long and her chakra pathways positively burned from the prolonged strain of continuously circulating small, measured amounts of chakra throughout. If nothing came of this stakeout, at least it was a torturous exercise in both chakra control and its use. Sakura knew from the telltale tingling in her stomach that her reserves felt stretched rather than on the verge of collapsing, which meant they'd grown at least a little bit.

The long wait gave her time to nibble on her meager supplies and fill up on what chakra she'd wasted before. It also allowed Sakura too much time to plan. Kakashi-sensei didn't teach her much offensive genjutsu, he was visibly put off by the thought of Sakura pursuing anybody with the intent to do irreparable harm – strange, considering it would most definitely be demanded of her eventually – but he was unwilling to leave her completely defenseless.

So Kakashi-sensei taught her how to bend her surroundings, how to manipulate the illusion without those trapped inside knowing they were controlled; guided by outside forces, their freedom of choice rendered essentially useless as they could only choose from predetermined options. Kakashi-sensei drilled Sakura on how to make these options favorable to her alone, on how to coax her opponents into picking the one least advantageous for them in any situation, on how to cover up for any slip she could make.

Kakashi-sensei may have prepared Naruto to be the brawn of the team, and he may have put the most effort into grooming Sasuke's genius, but he recognized Sakura as the brain – and he made sure she knew how to utilise every single one of her 168 IQ points to guarantee she came out on top. Sakura was no Shikamaru by any means, but her innate spitefulness, groomed by years of prolonged exposure to Ino's own particular brand, more than made up for it.

'C'mon,' she thought angrily, 'just a little closer, you know you want a piece of this.'

'Oh they don't,' Inner Sakura supplied, much darker than her counterpart. 'I'm gonna let 'em have it.'

And she would, too. Sakura had planted some especially nasty things from Naruto's sealing scroll in the ground, completely under the influence of her more violent inner personality. If anyone stepped onto Inner's traps, they won't be injured like they would be by Sakura's, no. They'd explode into pieces. Sakura considered making all traps so deadly, but she didn't have the supplies. Naruto's sealing scroll was barely accessible for her. She got what she could and thanked her luck the damned thing didn't absorb her, instead. It could've happened – Sasuke was absorbed on one occasion, and Naruto took his sweet time pulling him out.

'Come on, come on, come on, dammit!'

Two figures crept closer. From her vantage point, the real Sakura could see them clearly but her illusion on the ground couldn't, giving off an aura of utter incompetence and fear. Exactly as Sakura had planned.

One was a girl, not much older than herself. She had long, thick dark hair, very obviously groomed – much more so than Sakura's own. Or, at least, her illusion's hair. She couldn't be bothered with vanity when producing it, frankly. The other was a boy with spiky dark hair and an entirely unremarkable face. They had strange forehead protectors, engraved with a single note.

The girl's eyes had locked onto the fake Sakura, and her lips curled in distaste.

'Hook.' Sakura thought calmly.

"You're shitting me." The girl snarled.

'Line.' Sakura allowed herself to smile, a little.

"_This_ is what passes for shinobi around here?!"

'And sinker.'

* * *

Kin couldn't believe her eyes.

She really, truly, honest to the gods above, couldn't.

'Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?' she thought as her eyes took in the enemies Orochimaru-sama wanted to be removed. Well, just one of them.

She was _tiny_. Kin knew the girl was fourteen, they were informed as much by that rat, Kabuto. But no fourteen years old she ever met was that short. That skinny. That… _flat_. This in itself wasn't the reason for Kin's bewilderment, though. It was the girl's smooth, fair skin. No scars, no blemishes, not even a single thrice-damned pimple. Not even a freckle, which was practically unheard of during summer in the Land of fucking Fire. It was the girl's pink hair that fell to her waist, and despite the dust and grime that covered the rest of her remained shiny and pretty and so completely unbecoming of any sort of kunoichi it made Kin's skin crawl.

But most of all it was the circle on the girl's back, over what remained of her tattered shirt.

Kin knew that circle. How could she not? It was the symbol of that clan. The snobbish, rich, disgusting civilian clan that held all the merchants in the capital by the balls and dictated what was what, who was who and everything else. The clan that bought her father's business and kicked them out of Fire Country. The reason they immigrated to sound. Why she joined Orochimaru-sama in the first place – out of fear, out of hunger, out of desperation.

That damn Haruno Clan.

Hate bubbled in the pit of Kin's stomach, followed by jealousy over the little chit's quality clothing and equipment. The girl turned around then, and Kin was met with frightened wide green eyes, an almost drop-shaped face, with a round forehead and sharp chin, and once again – smooth, unblemished skin.

Of course.

Of course, the Haruno bitch would be pretty.

Kin snapped and lunged, incapable of holding herself back any longer, and Zaku let her, the bastard. He was smirking, too. Could probably read Kin like an open book, could smell just how pissed off she was at the mere sight.

After all, any femininity was beaten out of her by Otogakure's system, all but her hair. Her skin, hidden under her uniform, was marred with several scars, and blemishes, and burns. Only Kin's face was spared, in exchange for her body. In more ways than one.

As expected, the weak little thing didn't notice Kin until she'd delivered a kick straight to the side of the bint's head. There was a crack, probably the Haruno bitch's jaw, and the girl crashed against a tree on the farther side of the clearing. She was visibly shaken, and dazed from the hit. Briefly, Kin wondered if she'd caused a concussion, but then decided she didn't care. Here was an opportunity to beat up a Haruno – to take out years of frustrations directly on the source – and she was a Konoha kunoichi to boot! In the fucking Chunin Exams.

It's like Orochimaru-sama has handed Kin an early birthday gift, neatly wrapped up with a bow and message to have at it.

And she meant to. Kin intended to grind this pathetic excuse for a kunoichi to mush, simply for existing. Her exitence was insulting, more so than anything else Kin has ever encountered. As Zaku chortled from the sidelines, where he kept an eye on the two passed out meat bags, Kin proceeded to bash the pink-haired scum around, and each punch she delivered made her breathe easier. Made her feel alive.

* * *

'What an Idiot.' Sakura thought dryly.

'You can say that again.' Inner Sakura agreed, thoroughly unimpressed. 'Both of them. They didn't scan for traps!'

'Nope.'

The black haired girl had, inevitably, triggered a trap suring her rampage against a non-existent opponent. When one of Sakura's hidden shuriken shot out and grazed the girl's face, her already disturbing hostility shot through the metaphorical roof and she threw what little caution has been employed away.

As the girl rampaged below, to the sound of her companion's wild laughter, Sakura withdrew a single needle from her weapon pouch and carefully took aim. Sfter ten hours, she'd be loath to mess all of her careful planning up, so Sakura waited patiently for the right moment, all the while circulating a little bit more chakra than usual through her fingertips. Granted, the needle was poisoned as dictated in all guidebooks, but Sakura wanted to make sure it hit deep. So deep it wouldn't be possible to take out and the paralysis would be complete.

Finally, the moment came.

The girl slammed the illusion face-first into the forest ground, grabbed a handful of dirty pink hair and hauled it up to lean against her chest in a mockery of an embrace. The ilusion's face was a swollen, purple mess, with blood, snot and tears oozing out and making her seem even more pathetic than Sakura believed possible. After all, she'd copied it off herself as she was fresh out of the academy.

'Hit the mark or so help me!' Sakura thought and, with chakra laden fingers, flicked the needle.

Two things happened simultaneously.

The needle shot out, the metal glinted in the little light available under the trees and drew the attention of the boy. He immediately lunged at Sakura's hideout and she quickly withdrew, letting go of her genjutsu in favor of focusing on the very real fight she suddenly found herself in.

The girl hit the ground with a thud and didn't move anymore. From the corner of her eye, Sakura saw the very tip of her needle stick out of a profusely bleeding eyeball.

'Bullseye, literally!' Inner Sakura cheered, overly proud of their little achievement.

Sakura didn't reply, too preoccupied with the boy attempting to beat her senseless. After knowing Rock Lee for well over a year and even training with him nearly weekly, Sakura had no problem reading the boy's movements or keeping up with his speed. He was stronger than her, as was expected, but Sakura could still block most of his punches and kicks. She even landed several of her own, in useful areas Sasuke had shown her once, when he felt particularly friendly. The boy grunted and pushed on. Sakura grit her teeth and slowly felt herself go on the defensive.

It wasn't that the boy suddenly uraveled some sort of hidden talent in Taijutsu. He didn't have any sort of talent for the craft, Sakura deduced as much. Frankly, had she been physically stronger she would've leveled him by now. It was his moves that became the problem. The shift was gradual, a surprise here, a sudden change there, and Sakura found herself facing a situation where the asshole's movements were impossible to follow. It made no sense! His body was clearly following standard maneuvers, taught to all shinobi, without any sort of finesse, but instead of ending up where Sakura _knew_ he should, the boy would shift out of nowhere and slam her. He didn't even _touch_ her to deliver the hit, which made Sakura confident their fight had shifted out of the realms of taijutsu and into something else, and she didn't like her chances.

For one thing, Sakura's chakra was stretched thin, on the point of being extinguished entirely, from constantly feeding the genjutsu that kept her boys hidden. She wasn't about to let up on it, either, which undoubteadly meant chakra exhaustion of the more severe kind was in her future. She only hoped it would come after at least one of them woke up. Please.

The other thing was the boy's foul mouth. He'd not stopped swearing at Sakura from the moment he laid eyes on her. He cursed, he mocked, he deliberately sought out any flaw the boy could think of and latched on – and it began to piss her off. Some of the things he hissed about normally didn't bother her; in fact, Sakura was quite proud of how soft her hands were despite her profession, _thank you_. It took a lot of effort, damn it. But having every bit of you deliberately insulted during an intense fight was bound to make anyone's temper flare, and Sakura… well, maybe she'll take her mother up on that anger management course if she survived this.

The third was the unbearable sensation of being watched, still, even though Sakura couldn't see anyone. She couldn't sense an obvious presence, but she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, they were being watched. Had been, unceasingly, from the moment they entered the forest, and not by the proctors. The memory of hard yellow eyes made Sakura's moves jerkier and clumsier than normal, but it also turned them stronger, as she was desperate to get out. To tell Kakashi-sensei what happened. To hug her friends and know they were finally safe.

* * *

'Break his face! Shannaro!' Inner Sakura shrieked, outraged. The boy had started on their forehead.

Sakura was bruised and hurt in places she didn't even know could be reached in hand-to-hand combat. She was tired, so tired she was about to pass out. Her chakra reserve was almost empty, to the point continuing to hold up any of her genjutsu would be life threatening. There was blood pouring out of a cut above her left eyebrow, and it made seeing difficult. She was pretty sure the boy sprained her left shoulder, too, if not dislocated it entirely. She had several needles piercing her right thigh and couldn't step well on either foot anymore – her soles felt raw and tender, too much to walk comfortably. The worst part was Sakura's tight braids had begun to unravel. That never happened before. The boy was eyeing the long strands of pink hair – longer than the illusions by far – calculatingly, as if he was considering strangling Sakura with them, or something.

'If he touches out hair,' Sakura thought menacingly, 'I'll kill him. Even if it kills me.'

'The hair's where we draw the line.' Inner Sakura agreed ferociously.

Sakura _loved_ her hair. Not because of Sasuke supposedly liking long hair, not anymore. She loved it because her mother combed it gently and braided it back for her every morning. Ino would twist small flowers into it whenever Sakura helped in the Yamanaka shop, and wax poetic about how easy t was to match pink with nice flowers, unlike pale blonde. Hinata tied Sakura's hair up into a traditional updo for two festivals now, her touch gentle and her smile fond, as she told Sakura the color really was pretty on her. Tenten taught Sakura new ways to braid it every time they met, enthusiastically checking and rechecking how many shades could be counted in each style. Naruto slept with his hands grasping at any loose strands when they were on prolonged missions, Kakashi sensei helped Sakura tie it back then too and even Sasuke would occasionally brush and escaped lock behind her ear, with an exasperated look.

Sakura's hair was _important_, goddamit, so when that stupid boy, with his unkempt mop of dark spikes, reached a grabby hand and pulled on her little vain treasure, from the very roots, Sakura let out an infuriated shriek worthy of a banshee. She would've strangled him right then, fueled by a never before felt intent to hurt, to maim, to _kill_ the idiot – but her limbs wouldn't move. They'd turned to jelly from exhaustion.

The boy was startled by her screech and abruptly let Sakura go. He was obviously unused to female hissy fits. Had she known, she would've taken advantage of it. As it was, all Sakura could do was collapse to her knees in exhaustion and sag in relief – not because she thought the boy would leave her alone, now. But because her shriek did something else, too. The boys of Team 7 were, after all, quite familiar with this particular sound and they never failed to react to it. It was with fond, relieved eyes that Sakura watched Sasuke – his own expression wild with worry, probably for his own safety – descend the tree where she'd hid him and Naruto.

Sasuke's eyes took in the situation and the more he watched, the more stoic he became. After so long on a team together Sakura knew it meant he was getting angrier by the second, and that didn't bode well for the boy who was standing a few steps behind her, watching Sasuke intently. Then, Sasuke looked at her, took in the blood, the bruises, the swollen bits of Sakura's usually clean and unmarred face. He saw the needles in her thigh, Sakura's awkward posture and her loosened braids. Sasuke's face twisted into something so ugly, it gave Sakura pause.

"Sakura," Sasuke all but snarled, "who did this to you?"

Black tendrils were crawling up Sasuke's neck, and though a sense of foreboding filled her stomach with uneasiness, Sakura raised a shaky arm and pointed at the boy, who was still standing there – oozing confidence.

'He should run.' Inner Sakura thought, quieter than normal. 'Mistress Uchiha is _pissed_.'

'Thank god Naruto's still out.' Was all Sakura could think to reply as Sasuke descended on the boy.

From that point, all Sakura could hear were curses, threats and then loud, shrill screams. None in Sasuke's voice. Then she closed her eyes and fainted.

It'll be okay now.

* * *

**A/N**

Thank you for reading this story!  
Just taking a moment of your time to warn that from this point on, this story will be completely, without a shadow of a doubt, irrevocably, going AU. The plot, the characters, the lore - everything is going to change to fit the storyline, if necessary. This inevitably means a measure of OOC. Some could be just a little, others a complete 180 spin from canon. I'm thanking you in advance for considering this, and avoiding pointing out that 'character A would never do that!' and the like.  
Your comments and reviews are welcome! They give me the motivation I need to push through the occasional writer's block.

Once again, thank you. I hope you're all well during these odd times we're facing.  
Till next time!


	10. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 10

**DISCLAIMER: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto. Shefalls holds no claim to it, nor does she want to.**

**A/N**

I have returned! Not that I ever left.

We're approximately at the half point of the first part of this story. I'm debating if I should post part two as a separate piece, or continue it in one - I'd like to hear your opinions on that, as ultimately I want it to be a comfortable read for you. The second part won't be posted until my other Naruto story - Snake Bound - is complete, though, as I don't want to mix up the plots in my head.

Thank you for your comments and sticking with me so far!

As always, your reviews are very welcome.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**10.**

Sakura woke up in a medical tent. Naruto was perched on her bed, Sasuke stood to her right. They somehow managed to create a very effective barrier around Sakura's bed, and she would've made some comment about it – had there not been such an air of supressed fury about them.

"Do I want to know?" she asked quietly.

Naruto fell of the bed with a yelp, drawing an unimpressed huff from Sasuke. Sakura blinked and looked over the edge to make sure he was alright. Generally speaking, when Naruto remained sprawled on the ground in a heap and didn't cuss up a storm, something was up.

"Know what?" Naruto asked, fake cheer heavy in his voice.

"Nothing to know." Sasuke said at the same time.

"You're all obviously pissed," Sakura pushed on.

"There's nothing to know." Sasuke repeated.

It was the most Sakura had heard him speak, directly to her, ever. Some other time it would've made her ecstatic, but the way Sasuke was eyeing her weapons pouch kind of soured the mood.

'_Of course, he only notices us after we kill someone_.' Inner Sakura said dryly. '_I'm telling you, something's broken in his head_.'

Sakura suddenly remembered the screams and begging before she lost consciousness, and for the first time in her life she was inclined to agree with Inner Sakura's assessment of Sasuke. Whatever that strange mark did to him, it couldn't be good.

The Sasuke _she_ knew wasn't big on torture.

"I'm not having it." Sakura said flatly, mimicking the tone her mother used whenever she wanted answers. The boys straightened unconsciously, and Sakura considered how effective mothering-tricks were on them. "Out with it, now."

"Teme ripped a dude apart." Naruto reported immediately, not even bothering to draw it out.

Sasuke sneered.

"Come again?" Sakura chocked.

"I woke up," Naruto said, "and I got off the tree – thanks for putting me there, by the way, Sakura-chan. You were unconscious and teme was watching you. There was girl with a snebon through her eye and a dude, but the dude's arms weren't attached. His legs weren't either."

Sakura turned her wide eyes onto Sasuke, waiting for some sort of clarification because there was no way, none at all, Sasuke had dismembered a fellow examinee for hitting Sakura. Right?

Sasuke shrugged, unapologetic.

"What the fuck, Sasuke?" Sakura heard her voice, but she didn't quite recognize that sort of blank tone on herself.

"He hurt you." Sasuke replied flatly.

"I put a senbon through his teammate's eye." Sakura argued. "Obviously, he was a bit upset!"

"Technically, you put it in her brain." Naruto clarified a little breathlessly. "She was very dead."

"I know." Skaura said, a little impatiently. "It was intentional."

Silence followed that declaration. Naruto gaped at her, as if Sakura had just said something terribly disturbing or violated some taboo. Sasuke was watching her closely, too, and Sakura could've sword he looked almost… worried.

"What?" she demanded. "Wouldn't you've done the same?"

"Well, yeah," Naruto blinked and then narrowed his eyes in thought. It was a strange expression, but Sakura was used to it – she'd seen him puzzle over texts in the library enough to know Naruto could, in fact, think quite seriously and deeply. When he wanted. "But you've never done it before." He said after awhile. "didn't think it'll happen during an exam, dattebayo."

"Neither did I." Sakura shrugged. "I refuse to regret it. She threatened you."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that.

"They entered the clearing looking for us." Sakura revealed and her teammates tensed. "I'll bet you anything they were with that yellow-eyes creep and I'm not letting that near either of you ever again. _Ever_ again, so don't give me that look!"

Naruto promptly closed his mouth and Sasuke's doubtful look smoothly changed into an eye roll.

"Listen to me, idiots," Sakura said, determined to get her point across. "You're _mine_, got it? My teammates. My friends. My boys. I'm never not going to protect you. If I have to put a needle through some crazy chick's eye to do it, sure. If I get beaten up by a weirdo as a consequence, fine. As long as you are safe, I don't care."

"Sakura-chan," Naruto's eyes looked suspiciously moist as he threw himself at her. "Man, I love you too, 'ttebayo!"

"Believe it!" Sakura huffed and patted him on the back. She narrowed her eyes challengingly at Sasuke over Naruto's shoulder, and the last Uchiha met her glare for all of twenty seconds before his lips twitched and he looked away with a soft 'hn'.

She'll take it.

* * *

"Congratulations on making it this far into this year's Chunin Examinations."

The jonin's voice is as frail as his appearance and had Sakura been a little less coherent she would've wondered at it, but currently all of her barely there attention was focused on fuming.

"Due to the disqualification of six teams and the failure of an additional three, there will be no need for a preliminary round before we proceed to the final stage." The jonin stopped to cough for a full minute, until another shinobi handed him a bottle of water.

Sakura watched with unseeing eyes as the man took a deep gulp. Beside her, Naruto was visibly annoyed. Behind her, Sasuke gave no fucks at all. On her other side she could pick up on a very slight vibe of irritation from Kakashi-sensei, which meant he was beyond fuming. Some people were murmuring condescendingly, others chuckled. Team 7 was too wrapped up in their bubble of borderline-trauma to truly notice anything but what they'd already been told.

"As we want to draw in as many investors as possible, it has been decided that the third round will be held in two months' time." The jonin concluded and then slapped on some meaningless praises and general butt-licking propaganda Sakura could've picked up on as a toddler.

How anybody was actually buying any of this shit was beyond her.

'I can't believe them.'

'_Jerks_.'

'I can't freaking believe them!'

'_They ain't shit_!'

'You're not helping!'

'_Since when have I ever?!_'

Sakura sneered and promptly decided to ignore Inner Sakura, lest she drive her to a murderous frenzy. Sakura was close enough to it as it were, is Naruto's sudden grip on her wrist indicated anything.

She was just so angry!

Nothing was said about the deliberate attack and subsequent assault of Konoha genin by foreign hostiles during the second stage of the exams. Absolutely no bit of information was exposed. They acted like Team 7 hadn't been hunted like animals through the trees, weren't manhandled and threatened. Like Sakura wasn't almost molested, at the very goddamn _least_.

Like Sasuke wasn't branded like fucking cattle by some yellow-eyed monster.

Just like they were warned it'll be.

Kakashi-sensei had all but stormed into the medical tent, tossed the surprised nurse out without pause and promptly checked out each of his students on his own. He glowered at Sakura's still tender, but bruise free, skin. His nostrils flared at Naruto's dirty appearance. He actually swore, low and guttural, when he spotted the mark on Sasuke.

Sakura had never in her life seen their jonin instructor quite so pissed off before. Judging by the open shock on the boys' faces, neither did they.

Kakashi-sensei had thrown himself onto the only available seat, put a hand over his face and muttered darkly about manhunts, summoning some pervert and possible mutilation. Sakura strongly hoped none of that was planned for them, but judging by how unstable their teacher looked at the moment she abruptly decided remaining meek and quiet was in Team 7s best interests. Which is why she grabbed Naruto by the collar and smothered his head against her pillow to prevent him from making any sound. Sasuke wasted no time in planting his own foot on Naruto's bent back to assist her.

"Nothing will be done." Kakashi-sensei said suddenly, drawing their attention.

"About what?" Sakura sked carefully as she let Naruto go.

"Any of this." Kakashi-sensei hissed. "There will be no questioning of the foreigners in out village. No official investigation. They're going to bury this and try to sniff out clues while acting like nothing happened."

He sounded so far beyond tires, it was a wonder he was awake at all. Kakashi-sensei's tone was a mix of disappointment, sorrow and so much raw fury Sakura briefly wanted to engulf him in a hug. She didn't know if the gesture would be appreciated, however, so she settled on silently promising herself to get him that coffee brand he liked to cheer Kakashi-sensei up.

"The only reason they let me tell you anything is because they know you'll make a scene otherwise." Kakashi-sensei grumbled. "And I would tell you anyway."

"So… so they won't do squat?" Naruto clarified.

"Yes."

"Nothing at all?"

"No."

"Screw them!" Naruto exploded.

"Language," Kakashi-sensei demanded, but it was half-hearted at best.

"No! We were targeted from the start!" Naruto yelled, completely beside himself. "Whatever that was went after Sasuke! They wanted his eyes, Kakashi-sensei!

"Let them come," Sasuke scoffed, "I'll take them out."

"I commend your bravado, Sasuke," Kakashi-sensei said darkly, "but if he comes for you, you won't be able to do shit, so kindly -shut up."

Sasuke stewed in anger at that, but he couldn't contradict Kakashi-sensei's words.

Sakura will never forget the helplessness, as they were kicked aside like nothing. How completely useless all their training were when facing that creature. She couldn't even stand. Sasuke couldn't do any damage. Naruto, under the kyubi's influence, didn't draw more than brief surprise out of that thing.

'Wait, him?'

"Him, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked quietly. "You know who did this to Sasuke?"

"Orochimaru." Kakashi-sensei answered immediately, with a dark, empty little laugh. Sakura promptly decided she hated that sound more than anything else in the world. It made their sensei seem so thoroughly broken he heart squeezed painfully at the mere thought. "One of the Sannin. It's a known jutsu of his."

"What he wants with teme?" Naruto demanded.

"You've said it yourself." Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "Orochimaru has always been fascinated with kekkei-genkai, and the Sharingan is doubtlessly at the very peak of those talents. He wants Sasuke's eyes."

"And the village isn't going to try and catch him?" Sakura demanded.

"He is a former student of the Third," Kakashi-sensei sighed, "and a protégé of one of the councilmen. It… complicates things."

Sakura understood.

Before Sakura decided to be a kunoichi at the age of seven, she was raised with the firm belief that one day, when her parents retired, Sakura will take over the business. Being a Haruno came with responsibilities and duties most civilians didn't have/ Sakura's family dealt in money, large sums of money, and these transactions had to be successful. Negotiation, manipulation, blackmailing – all was fair in the eternal trade-war that was the business world, and Sakura's mother was trying to drill this fact into her only daughter's skull since she was a toddler.

Even after Sakura announced she was going to be a ninja, with all the ferocity of a child, her mother kept on training her. 'Negotiation is important,' he mother would say. 'Everything in this world is a matter of negotiation: money, connections – even love.' Her mother said it with utmost seriousness, Sakura's father nodded in the background, and Sakura believed them. She believed them so much she did her best to learn, even though she knew she'll never take over the business, despite her mother's continuing hopes that she would. Sakura was going to be a kunoichi. No civilian life for her.

But her mother's lessons paid off. Mebuki Haruno was right – correct negotiation was at the root of everything, and in it's simplest form negotiation was politics. If Orochimaru and a student of the Third and a protégé of a councilman, then he was untouchable until these powerful men decided otherwise. Seeing as Sakura never heard of him before, not in the Academy and not even in the bingo books accessible to young shinobi, it meant someone was covering for him. Or, rather, limiting access to information about him. Which meant that even now, Orochimaru was protected. Perhaps he was an enemy of the Leaf, but Konoha will not seek him out first.

He will not pay for what he'd done.


	11. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.** Shefalls holds no claim over any bit of it.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**11.**

Kakashi-sensei had taken Sasuke away as soon as the healers cleared him. That was a little over twelve hours after the official end of the second round. It's been two days since then and there was no sign of either of them returning before the third round began. Knowing Kakashi-sensei, they might be late for that, too.

Sakura would've been furious at this show of favoritism. She worked very hard to earn Kakashi-sensei's favor, was immensely proud of her official spot as his cutest little genin, his darling lil' kunoichi – as he'd mumbled once, drugged up on painkillers and thoroughly out of it, after Naruto dropped a steel beam on his head on accident. She would've gone on a reckless quest to track both of them down to rain fury on their sorry butts, in the form of unholy shrieks and faked sobs, as Sakura learned this method worked very efficiently on her teammates.

'_The girl cries? Quick, give her what she wants, maybe she'll stop leaking!'_

'As if,' she thought with a brief sneer.

'Morons.' Inner Sakura agreed cheerfully.

But as things stood, Sakura wasn't even a little miffed. Well, she'd experienced a brief flash of murderousness when she was woken up at an ungodly hour by someone smacking her straight on the nose. Then she'd seen who did it and promptly didn't care, too busy cooing over the best summons in the world.

Pakkun had been delegated to watch Sakura and Naruto, and make sure they were ready to kick ass.

Sakura adored Pakkun.

He was tiny. He was soft. He passed gas and burped in people's faces like no other and he put the fear of god into her boys, simply by being significantly faster and having the mouth of a sailor. He licked Sakura's fingertips, snored contentedly on her lap and once bit at Kakashi-sensei's anckle when he tried to dislodge the ninken from his student so she could participate in training. Pakkun had caught that horrible cat Tora for Sakura once, and scared him so much it took the demented feline three months to dare attempt another bid at freedom. He also once peed on Ino's foot when she mocked Sakura's forehead in his presence.

Sakura loved all of Kakashi-sensei's ninken, she really did. The entire pack was an absolute dream. But she truly _adored_ Pakkun.

And Pakkun loved her just as much.

* * *

"Oi, whisker-boy, that's the fastest you got?"

Sakura would've laughed at Naruto's expression, but they were on lap fifteen around Konoha and she could barely breathe, let alone make any sort of sound.

"Kee at it Sakura, great job!"

Pakkun woke Sakura at half past three and then commandeered her to get Naruto up. That took significant effort on both their parts and only after forty minutes did they succeed. By succeed Sakura meant Pakkun's patience ran out and he bit Naruto straight on the ass. Naruto woke up screaming and flailing, kicked a laughing Sakura in the shin and nearly threw Pakkun out of his window. Sakura proceeded to sit on his stomach and smack him with a pillow until Naruto came to his senses, while Pakkun, wearing a serious expression but obviously acting in petty vengeance, peed in Naruto's shower. After that chaotic wake-up call, the two found themselves running laps around Konoha as they were used to, but with Pakkun on their heels, insulting Naruto, complimenting Sakura, and nipping the ankles of whoever lagged behind for longer than a moment.

It was worse than survival training, in Sakura's opinion. She hated running with a passion. She hated cardio. She hated sweating. She hated having trouble breathing and getting lightheaded.

Most of all, Sakura hated losing to Naruto.

"Shannaro!" she hollered, speaking the nearly-forgotten word for the first time in many years. With a burst of speed, egged on by Inner Sakura's cheers and her own determination, Sakura broke into training ground 12 three steps before Naruto. She collapsed on her back, sprawled on the ground with her long hair in disarray and dirt sticking to her sweaty skin. Naruto crumbled in a heap to her left, groaned pitifully and offered Sakura a hand to high-five. She barely managed to tap his palm with hers before giving up on any sort of movement.

"Ya won, Sakura-chan," Naruto mumbled, his face burrowed in the grass. "That's the first time."

He was right.

"Won't be the last," she swore breathily, and Naruto gave a tired, happy chuckle.

"What are you two doing?" Pakkun asked dryly. "Get up. Time for taijutsu."

'Maybe Pakkun isn't my favorite, after all.' Sakura thought darkly as the pug ninken unleashed a day of torture on their unsuspecting selves.

* * *

Day two was worse than day one.

For some reason Sakura thought Pakkun would let up. Maybe it was how he cuddled on top of her stomach when she'd gone to sleep that day. Maybe it was because he woke her at the perfectly acceptable hour of six thirty. She was wrong. So wrong.

'I… I can't believe this.' Sakura thought, her face red from concentration as sweat trickling into her hair line. It was absolutely gross – getting sweat in her hair.

At least today she had the time to braid it back.

Pakkun had dragged Sakura and Naruto to one of the cliffs surrounding Konoha – just outside its walls, still within the permanent patrol circles of ANBU. A perfectly safe spot, overlooking a nice valley. Then he had them hang upside down from a flimsy branch, right above a very steep drop. There were sharp rocks at the bottom, of course. Whenever the branch shook, Pakkun cackled and Sakura was almost entirely convinced by this point that it wasn't Pakkun at all. This was Kakashi-sensei, hiding beneath some sort of twisted henge, and he was torturing them for fun. He'd finally lost the last screw holding his sanity together after what happened in the Forest of Death. The one flaw to her hypothesis was how unimpressed Pakkun had been by Naruto's pervy-style jutsu. It never failed to work on Kakashi-sensei, but Pakkun was as uninterested in the half-naked fake women as always.

"Focus of your chakra, dumbass." Pakkun advised Naruto, who'd clung to the branch for dear life after he lost concentration to cast his little trick.

"Stop shaking the branch, Naruto!" Sakura hissed, as her own chakra began to slip due to the unsteady base.

"We're gonna die! Gonna die!" Naruto wailed.

"Do that again and I'll save ya!" hooted a male voice.

Something about that voice rubbed Sakura the wrong way. She had the sudden urge to wack its owner with something heavy and hopefully deal lasting damage. It made her skin crawl, the roots of her hair tingled and her teeth almost _shuddered_. Even Inner Sakura gave pause to wonder just why they suddenly wanted to pummel a total stranger.

Sakura had her answer in less than two minutes, when Naruto and she were safely deposited on solid ground, and the leering old man before them expectantly waited for a repeat show.

'Ah.' Sakura thought. 'It's my pervert-identification sense.'

'Seems so.' Inner Sakura greed sagely.

'Wait, what the fuck?!' Sakura grabbed the nearest object – a palm sized rock – and threw it at the man's head. It hit him smack on the forehead and left a very obvious bruise behind.

"That's sexual assault, you creep!" Sakura screeched and Naruto scrambled to stand behind her.

"You tell him, Sakura-chan!" Naruto squeaked, thoroughly disturbed. No one ever asked him to repeat the pervy jutsu before. The suggestive leer was just the cherry on top of the 'hell-no-get-away' vibe the geezer had going on.

"Hey, young lady," the weirdo leveled Sakura with a flat look. "Throwing rocks on senior citizen's rude, you know."

"Harassing kids is worse!" Sakura picked up another rock and took aim.

"Yo, Sakura," Pakkun gave her a look. "No need for that. That's gonna be your teacher for a little while."

Sakura gaped and Naruto chocked on air.

"Come again?" she demanded.

"Kakashi arranged it." Pakkun shrugged, and how he managed that was absolutely beyond Sakura. "The old pervert's _late_, but he's here for you two."

"Oi, I had a long distance to cover." Said old pervert picked at his ear, completely unashamed.

"Oh my god," Naruto grabbed Sakura's shoulder's and pulled her back. "Kakashi-sensei sold us! He sold us to this weirdo!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Sakura hissed, but at this point she was almost ready to believe Naruto got it right, for a change. "Kakashi-sensei wouldn't sell _me_, I'm his favorite."

And her parents would hire the whole of Konoha's shinobi force to hunt his ass if he ever dared.

Sakura had complete faith Kakashi-sensei wouldn't risk it for those reasons alone.

"What a mess." The perverted stranger rolled his eyes, flipped his ridiculously long white hair over his shoulder and struck a frankly stupid dramatic pose. Sakura very briefly realised that something about him reminded her a little of how Naruto was, before she'd trained him up. "Listen up, ungrateful brats! I'm the amorous ninja from Mount Myoboku! The magnificent Toad Sage, Jiraiya-sama!"

Pakkun nodded his head in agreement, confirming the weirdo's words.

"Fuck no." Naruto deadpanned.

"Yeah, that's a bad lie." Sakura agreed.

They knew who Jiraiya was. Everybody knew who Jiraiya was. Student of the Third, master of the Fourth. Greatest fuinjutsu expert alive. The only one of the Sannin who appeared in every possible book. The only one still actively loyal to Konoha. The only one openly spoken about, recognized, and acknowledged in any way. There was no way in the Seven Hells of Ashura that this old weirdo of a pervert was in fact one of Konoha's mightiest heroes.

No way.

* * *

It turned out that yeah way, it wasn't a lie. The great sage Jiraiya was also the world's biggest, most shameless pervert, with no code of honor whatsoever, no boundaries and zero intention of ever stopping. He also took it personally that Naruto wouldn't repeat his pervy jutsu. And apparently having a rock slammed into his forehead by Sakura during the whole confusion was too insulting. Go figure.

In retaliation to his new charges' disobedient ways, Jiraiya brought up two sharp pillars from the ground and had them balance right on top – or risk a very painful fall… into a improvised fucking swamp Jiraiya made out of nothing and then filled with the nastiest smelling liquid Sakura had ever been unfortunate enough to sniff. Toad gunk, he'd called it, with a maniacal grin. Still fresh.

Jiraiya made them balance on those pillars for close to six hours. While Sakura and Naruto concentrated, cursed, and couldn't quite believe their shitty luck – as this sort of thing just never happened to Naruto, Jiraiya made camp. He pulled out a notebook and pen, positioned the oddest set of binoculars in existence _just so_, and then proceeded to scribble down unknown things while cackling like a raving lunatic. He probably was a raving lunatic. As was Kakashi-sensei, for leaving them in this madman's hands. Pakkun lazed in the shade and chewed on an annoyingly squeaking luxury toy Sakura had bought just for him, with her precious savings. No one came to save them.

Sakura and Naruto had been abandoned to the dogs.

* * *

When Sakura crawled back home that day, she couldn't feel her legs. Her chakra pathways burned, and her muscles screamed at her in protest for staying in such an uncomfortable position for hours on end. Unlike her impromptu lurking in the Forest of Death, this time Sakura had no adrenaline or anger to back her up and give her the drive she lacked. To fire up her determination. She also didn't have the luxury of passing out as soon as it was done. This time Sakura felt the exhaustion quite keenly, along with a potent need to make sure Jiraiya _paid for it_.

Naruto was so far gone after their training, Sakura carried him on her own back and deposited him at her mother's dining room table, because she was concerned he might die before they made it to his apartment. Her mother took one look at the two of them, snorted in disbelief and proceeded to order an obscene amount of food from the closest restaurant. Mebuki dragged both genin upstairs and ordered them to bathe and put on something clean before they made her retch (they'd inevitably fallen into Jiraiya's horrid concoction eventually). Half an hour later, Sakura dragged herself downstairs, clad in her fluffiest pajamas and with a towel wrapped around her head. Naruto was again sat by the dining table, this time chewing slowly on a dumpling and positively melting under Mebuki's aggressive fretting.

'Mom really does like Naruto, huh?' Sakura wondered, as Mebuki carefully smoothed Naruto's damp hair out of his face and tsked at his bewildered expression.

'Yep.' Inner Sakura relied eagerly, 'definitely more than she does Mistress Uchiha. Think we can get her to officially adopt our dumbass, so we can keep him on a leash forever?'

'Naruto's not a pet.' Sakura argued, but the whole adoption thing had merit. If Naruto were theirs, no civilian would ever bully him again. Mebuki would _slaughter_ them. Financially, of course. Her mother wasn't violent.

'Even if they don't, we could.' Inner Sakura decided, just as Naruto noticed Sakura and sent her his trademark bright smile, a little worn around the edges from exhaustion.

'We already did.' Sakura decided. 'He's ours. Kakashi-sensei's ours. Sasuke's ours.'

'Madame Rage ain't shit.'

'He's still ours!'

Inner Sakura scoffed, but didn't carry on. Team 7 really was theirs. Just as Sakura had claimed Ino, Tenten, Lee-san and Hinata as theirs, too. Shikamaru and Choji were Naruto's, and Sakura wasn't ever going to lay any sort of claim over Guy-sensei. Honestly speaking, Sakura was beginning to suspect that once she'll figure out what made Jiraiya tick, other than naked women, she might claim that walking mess, too. Even if only out of spite.

Sakura loved her people. She treasured each and every one of them. If her only way of getting stronger was to train under a lecherous bastard old enough to be her grandparent, so be it. She'll train and she'll excel, and when the time comes she'll hunt down that yellow-eyed creep Orochimaru and put his head on a spike for hurting what was hers.

But before any of that, she was going to give the local bathhouse an anonymous tip that a pervert was on the loose, and they should tighten security. Oh, and put up some wanted posters of her newest teacher. And give Ino the information so that every kunoichi in town was warned.

Hey, Jiraiya started playing dirty first. He shouldn't blame Sakura for being much better at it.


	12. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 12

**DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto**. Shefalls claims none of it for herself.

* * *

**A/N**

I feel the need to bring this up once again: this is an AU.

I'll be deviating from the manga and anime. Consider them non-existent.

Your reviews and comments are what gives me motivation, and motivation brings you updates!

Please continue to share your thoughts with me.

As always,

Thank you for reading.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree.**

**12.**

It was a Saturday afternoon, exactly twenty five days after Sakura and Naruto were handed over to Jiraiya like sacrificial lambs.

He worked them to the bone while somehow continuing with his voyeurism even though Sakura did her level best to get in the pervert's way. She knew he was growing quite annoyed with just how much her attempts were improving each day, but Jiraiya didn't acknowledged it and Sakura carried on – encouraged by Naruto's unrestrained enjoyment of her vengeance in their name. But still, _Jiraiya worked them to the bone_. It was why meeting up with their friends became ridiculously difficult. They'd even stopped their weekend training with Lee-san, because Jiraiya dominated every waking minute of his two students. He was absolutely needy, demanded their full attention all the time and got unbearably loud whenever they failed to do it. Sakura often thought that the term 'overgrown baby' was invented because, and for, that damn albino _hedgehog_.

Today was different, though.

Today Jiraiya announced a two-day respite, because he had to continue with his research and couldn't spare anymore time. Sakura took it to mean her efforts in blocking every peeping spot around Konoha were successful, so the asshole was going to travel to satisfy his stupid hobby. Either way, she didn't care. Vacation was exactly what she needed, and the closest town was populated by ninja - too. They'd beat him half dead, no doubt.

'Masurame's Top Yakiniku' was the number one place for great barbeque in Konoha. Booking a table always had to be done at least three days in advance, and even then you were guaranteed to wait in line outside for at least twenty minutes. In addition to this, the owner and chef was Akimichi Musarame. This meant that civilians could only visit the restaurant twice a year, as for the rest of time it was a shinobi-only establishment. As if this wasn't exclusive enough – Musarame's was banned for any shinobi below chunin. All in all, it was an exclusive, tasty, super-popular place.

And none of the rules ever applied to Akimichi Choji and his friends. You a civilian but friends with Choji? Come anytime. Oh, you a genin? Not a problem sweetie, take a seat. Get comfortable, pig out and be prepared to receive a hefty discount for being friends with the clan heir. You're guaranteed to enjoy, and definitely come again.

Six o'clock found Sakura squished between Ino and Naruto, opposite an amused Tenten and a blushing Hinata, at one of Misarame's large tables. Choji was holding court, Shikamaru was footing the bill and Lee-san had been snatched by Guy-sensei, who sat a few tables down from them, to judge in his impromptu eating competition against an unfamiliar Jonin, under the bewildered gaze of Asuma-sensei. The atmosphere was loud and cheery. The food was Akimichi quality great.

Sakura was having a good time.

"So I told him to butt out," Naruto said loudly, "because there's no way I'm getting up that early for chakra training, yeah? And he – he just tossed me out the window!"

"Shithead." Ino deadpanned. "Your situation's getting worse, Forehead. From one pervert to another, and this one's _nuts_, to boot."

"Pfft. The last time he tried to pull that crap on me, Pakkun bit him." Sakura snorted. "Right where it counts."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru decided, while Choji shuddered and Tenten cackled in amusement.

"He's such a mess!" Naruto complained.

"B-but, I'm s-s-sure he'll train you well, Naruto-kun." Hinata stuttered out and she didn't even sway when Naruto targeted his blinding grin at her.

'Kudos,' Sakura thought, impressed. 'Our girl's improving.'

'We'll have her Frenching his face in no time!' Inner Sakura agreed enthusiastically.

'Ew.'

"So where's Chicken-Butt?" Tenten asked.

"Chicken-what-now?" Ino asked, perturbed.

"She means Sasuke," Naruto snickered.

"We don't know, Kakashi-sensei kidnapped him." Sakura answered simultaneously.

At first it took Sakura by surprise just how completely unimpressed Tenten was by Sasuke. Overtime she'd grown to expect it, but she never really understood how anyone with eyes could be so blatantly uninterested in, at least, his pretty face. Then Sakura saw Hyuuga Neji at the exams and she finally figured out _exactly_ what Tenten's problem was. Sasuke and Neji were both ridiculously pretty, and both absolute massive dicks. It was impossible to refute or deny, not now that she actually knew Sasuke on a slightly better lever. He was an ass. Sakura loved him anyway. Such was life.

"Don't insult Sasuke-kun!" Ino screeched, offended beyond belief.

"Nah," Sakura shrugged, "his hair _does_ look like a chicken's ass."

Naruto snorted so enthusiastically, he fell off his seat.

"Forehead!" Ino hissed.

"It's true!" Sakura protested. "I've been telling him to grow it out for _months_, but the jerk won't do it. Maybe if other people notice the resemblance he'll cave! Come on, Pig, we deserve it!"

'Deserve or not, we want it!' Inner Sakura leered, 'imagine it, Piggy. Just _imagine_ it.'

Ino blinked.

Sakura could see the cogs in her head turning, as she tried to picture Sasuke with longer hair. Hair hanging to his nape, shoulder length, maybe – please, please, if there's any god out there – even longer?

Ino's eyes glazed over, her face flushed a flattering pink in a way Sakura would never in a million years manage, and she slapped Sakura's shoulder a little too hard with a dumb smile on her lips. Sakura had no doubt Sasuke would be known village-wide as 'chicken-butt' by tomorrow.

'Which guarantees he'll cave, the dramatic sod.' Inner Sakura grumbled.

Sakura smirked and snatched the last short-rib slice right from under Choji's nose. It really was a gread day so far.

The weekend flew by in a blink and Sakura spent it glued to her friends' side. She had more fun in those two days than she did in _months_. They ate, went shopping, played kunai-target with Naruto's shadow clones and just generally made a ruckus. Ino braided purple blooms into Sakura's hair and then pastel pink one's into Hinata's, after which she'd bullied the two girls into painstakingly decorating her own blonde locks with pretty red flowers. Tenten waxed poetic about having shorter hair, and then evilly imagined Neji with flowers in his waist-length brown hair. Naruto and Lee-san beat each other up. Choji made them treats. Shikamaru napped under a tree. It was truly a great, great weekend.

Sakura should've known it wouldn't last.

* * *

Jiraiya returned bright and early on Monday, his spirits unexpectedly high and his attitude even more revolting than usual. He'd somehow managed to summon – actually summon – Naruto and Sakura onto that one cliff above a waterfall, where they had the absolute displeasure of becoming his temporary charges. Jiraiya had already set-up camp: there was a fire pit, one folding chair with a little parasol above it, and was suspiciously looked like the ingredients to make a half-assed tent. Jiraiya lounged on the chair, wearing sunglasses and cackling over an adult magazine.

Sakura instinctively picked up a rock and lugged it at the pervert's head. Jiraiya, well practiced by now, dodged – but he didn't expect the second rock, courtesy of an irritated Naruto, that smacked him straight on the nose.

"Oi!" Jiraiya howled, "you ungrateful brats!"

"Pervert." Sakura snapped right back.

"Hedgehog-head!" Naruto yelled. "Why'd you bring us here? How'd you bring us here?!"

"Ah, that's the question, isn't it?" Jiraiya drawled in a sickeningly sweet yet condescending tone he knew both of them hated. "You still have the talismans I gave you?"

"You told us to keep them in our pockets at all times." Sakura said waspishly and pulled out a little ball of crumpled paper from her pajama's one pocket. She strongly suspected it was a useless scribble when Jiraiya handed it to her before he departed over the weekend, but turns out she was wrong.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed grumpily and pulled out his own crumpled little note. He eyed it suspiciously and sniffed with what Sakura learned could only be derision. "It's written bad."

"Badly written." Jiraiya corrected and then tilted his head. "How do you mean?"

"It's a weak seal." Naruto said flatly as he uncrumpled the talisman and then shoved it under Jiraiya's nose. "It says in 'Guide to Fuinjutsu part four' that connecting a seal with just one line, without adding anything else to hold it together, makes it weak and unpredictable."

Sakura blinked and then sat down, expecting a long triad.

Ever since Naruto developed an interest in sealing, courtesy of his mysterious mother Kushina, he became something of a walking preacher on the importance of proper work. The first time Naruto went off on Tenten, moaning about careless sealing scrolls and how abhorrent the standard seal work was, Sakura nearly fainted. Naruto used big words, correctly and repeatedly. And Tenten swore he didn't make a single mistake. The two often geeked out about fuinjutsu together after that, sowing general panic among those who knew Naruto, but hadn't picked up on his new hobby. Naruto? Study? Remember entire volumes of information? The end of the world must be coming.

But either way, Sakura knew that no matter how much of a dumbass Naruto was on the daily, and just how completely out-of-it he could be under any sort of circumstance, when the subject was fuinjutsu Naruto didn't fuck around. His usual wildness gave way to a sort of morbid seriousness, accompanied by a near fanatical adoration for the art of his ancestors, and Naruto could go on for _hours_. He kept pulling fact after fact, straight out of his ass, and waxing poetic about things Sakura couldn't ever see him taking an interest in – like the type of ink used, for example.

It was quite a shock for first-timers.

Jiraiya was no exception.

The Sannin looked like he was scared for his life for the first two minutes of Naruto's rant. Then he looked confused, followed by amazed and finally settled on a sort of awed curiosity. Sakura marveled at how _soft_ his expression turned, how his black eyes beheld Naruto with a fondness no-one developed quite so soon for any living being other than family. Naruto was starting the tenth minute of his impromptu complaining session and Jiraiya just nodded at him, listening with rapt attention. Sakura half expected him to start taking notes.

'Wait a sec, family.' Sakura blinked, straightened in her sitting position, and narrowed her eyes on Jiraiya suspiciously. 'He knows something.'

'We need to watch it.' Inner Sakura ordered. 'This requires gentle handling.'

'Yeah.'

'We've got to corner him and tease the info out, or else –'

"You knew Naruto's mom, didn't you?"

'What the hell!' Inner Sakura yelled, but Sakura couldn't care less.

Her timing was perfect. Jiraiya was so startled he nearly fell out of his seat. Naruto stopped mid sentence to turn big blue eyes onto their temporary teacher.

"Can you tell us?" Sakura asked with all the innocence of a little child. She opened her eyes extra wide and even let her bottom lip tremble. Naruto obviously picked up on his cue because Sakura could practically _sense_ how the tears gathered in his eyes and his nostrils flared.

"No one ever tells me anything," Naruto mumbled miserably. "I only found out about her at all by accident. From the old records in the library."

"Repeat that." Jiraiya said suddenly, his expression shocked.

"I found an old mission report." Sakura explained immediately. She smelled weakness and she was going in for the kill. "It was signed Uzumaki Kushina, but we never heard about another Uzumaki."

"So we tried to look it up." Naruto picked it up smoothly. "We found her graduation details and then my friend Hinata-chan asked her dad –"

'More like robbed her dad, but sure.' Inner Sakura chuckled.

"And he told her Kushina died during the Kyubi attack on my birthday."

"Wasn't hard to figure out the rest," Sakura slapped on the partial lie easily.

Jiraiya studied them in silence and at first, Sakura thought he was looking for a way to wiggle out of this. Then, Naruto backed away. That was her first clue that something was wrong. Naruto _never_ backed away, and Naruto wasn't in the slightest afraid of Jiraiya.

The second clue was the rapid spike in chakra. If Sakura could sense the rage in it the Naruto must be drowning – since his sensing abilities had gotten remarkably more advanced ever since Sakura helped him control his own chakra better. Jiraiya's chakra was becoming visible – angry orange wisps flowing slowly, but with determination around him.

'Quiet anger is the worst type of anger.' Sakura thought, a little dazed by the sheer volume of chakra the old pervert had in him.

Third was the killing intent. The only reason Sakura hadn't crumpled to the ground was because not a single drop had been aimed at them. Jiraiya was furious enough to want to kill, but who the target was Sakura couldn't tell. She didn't really want to, either.

"I knew Kushina." Jiraiya said finally and immediately all the angry chakra and killing intent disappeared. "She was… she was incredible. The prettiest girl in her generation. Always loud, always happy. AN absolute beast on the field, too." He gave Naruto that strangely soft and fond look again. "You look like her. You act like her. You've the same style."

"Really?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." Jiraiya's mouth twisted, as if he wanted to scowl. "I understand the secrecy but to erase Kushina… after everything she did for Konoha, after all the sacrifice… some Will of Fire that is."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"Maybe when you make it to jonin, I'll tell you." Jiraiya snapped, not missing a beat. Then he promptly brightened up. "Now, let's talk training! You two are ready for some justu now, I think. With how your chakra control improved."

'Didn't know ours was lacking.' Inner Sakura snarked.

'Damn straight.' Sakura thought but she had to give it to Jiraiya, he did improve what she already thought had been perfected. It was uncanny.

"What're you teaching us?" Naruto asked excitedly. "Is it some cool jutsu?!"

"Something like that." Jiraiya smirked. "Naruto, go stand over there. Sakura goes first."

* * *

Jiraiya gave her a blank scroll and a notebook.

"_Sealing?" Sakura blinked. "I don't know any fuinjutsu."_

"_You're about to learn." Jiraiya said seriously and that caused Sakura to look up at him. "You know what Naruto is."_

_Sakura didn't even flinch. She immediately brought up her most confused expression and the lie was on the tip of her tongue when Jiraiya carried on._

"_Don't try to deny it, it's quite obvious." Jiraiya ordered. "It's good that you do. You're smart, pinkie. Smarter than many of the jonin around. You remind me of one of my old students."_

"_Huh?"_

"_At some point, the village is going to ask Naruto to control the fox." Jiraiya said flatly. "They're going to try and make him into a weapon, it's inevitable."_

"_Over my dead body." Sakura said vehemently._

"_You're talking treason, little girl." Jiraiya hissed._

"_Anything for Naruto." Sakura hissed right back, twice as determined as before._

"_Good." Jiraiya's expression brightened a little. "You're going to learn fuinjutsu. You're smart enough and your chakra control is as perfect as it gets. You can make up for lack of reserves. I'm going to teach Naruto how to access the fox's chakra without drawing it out. You – you're going to learn how to put it down if it does."_

Sakura was left to it after that. She had to manage the thing on her own, Jiraiya couldn't practice the technique for her.

He'd told her to put a genjutsu inside the sealing scroll. Basically, she was to weaponize it.

It wasn't a beginners' fuinjutsu, but Jiraiya didn't do beginners' anything. He strongly implied that if Sakura couldn't handle it then she would be of no use to Naruto in the long run. She would have to step aside for someone else, someone who could get the knack of it and was capable of mastering techniques strong enough to restrain the kyubi. That meant telling Naruto's secret to another person and exposing him to extra danger.

'Over our dead body.' Inner Sakura growled.

'As we've said.' Sakura agreed.

'Let's seal a genjutsu up in this bitch!'

It was a complicated thing and it demanded a lot. Much more than any task Kakashi-senpai had ever given Sakura.

The first thing she did was go the library and haul up all the beginners' guides on fuinjutsu. For the first time Sakura regretted not studying alongside Naruto when he started following in his mother's footsteps. Then again, she was drowning in the vast archives about genjutsu at the time and couldn't really be blamed for not wanting to take up another difficult thing. So now Sakura had to figure out the basics and quickly graduate from them to moderate, as Jiraiya obviously didn't have the patience to hold her hand through it.

Sakura liked it that way.

As it stood now at least Sakura had absolute mastery over all D-rank genjutsu taught at the academy. Thanks to Kakashi-sensei she had reached a level of control over her favorite Hell Viewing Technique where she no longer needed hand signs – just intent. Her Hell Viewing Technique was so good it trapped Kakashi-sensei for ten minutes, once. He congratulated her on making a D-rank jutsu reach nearly B-level strength. It surprised him, and he banned her from ever using it when sparring with her teammates.

'Hell Viewing Technique it is,' Sakura decided. 'It'll be useful bound to scrolls, since it's a short range jutsu.'

'Imagine an unsuspecting idiot catching the scroll and bam! Nightmare time.' Inner Sakura hummed.

Sakura tried very hard not to grin sadistically. Kakashi-sensei would definitely be her first victim.

* * *

It took Sakura nearly two weeks to figure out how to bind other types of jutsu with fuinjutsu. When she figured it out – it was an accident, brought on by an encompassing desire to mutilate she hadn't felt before.

Jiraiya had thrown Naruto off a cliff, you see.

It went down like this:

Sakura was minding her own business. That was the truth for a change, too. She'd been making steady progress with her fuinjutsu capabilities. Jiraiya had been right: Sakura's total chakra control and brain power simplified things. While Naruto had the disadvantage of so much chakra he couldn't make it listen, Sakura's natural reserve was very small and highly eager to please. She got the basics down quickly and made it to moderate level – that is, the stage Tenten was at currently – at a remarkable speed. And that's where Sakura was stuck.

While Naruto suffered for months to get the basics down once he managed it he became a sort of monster. He had a knack for the truly difficult techniques. Whether it was his Uzumaki blood or some unforeseen talent – Naruto was the only genin in Konoha who could pull off a B-rank fuinjutsu with zero casualties and no harm to himself. He was probably the only shinobi in Konoha who could look at a diagram of an A-rank or S-rank fuinjutsu and figure out where to begin. Sakura couldn't understand Tenten's frustration with Naruto's progress until she was smacked with the same feeling in the face, herself.

It didn't help that Sakura was hands-down confident Naruto would've figured out her task by now, too. Her only consolation was Naruto had hit a block on his fuinjutsu progress, too, and there was still a heck of a chance for her to catch up. If she did, they'll advance together. They'll stay together.

'As it should be!' Inner Sakura announced.

The problem at the moment wasn't even Sakura's roadblock. She'll figure it out eventually, no matter what. Sakura had complete faith in her intellect. No, the problem was Naruto's lack of progress. Even with her meagre knowledge on the subject Sakura could tell the seal holding the kyubi inside Naruto was obsolete. It was designed to keep it in and not allow a single wisp of it out. Only when Naruto was in danger or under extreme duress did the kyubi manage to pock it's nose and sniff at what was happening – but even that mostly depended on Naruto's emotional state. It required hatred and blind rage.

Naruto had neither.

He was the single most forgiving, happiest, kindest, and most loving twerp Sakura ever had the unquestionable pleasure of meeting. She doubted he'll ever summon up the negativity necessary to prod the kyubi into cooperation.

'He probably doesn't even realise that's the problem.' Inner Sakura bemoaned. 'If only Jiraiya-peeper would let us talk to each other!'

That was another part of Jiraiya's brilliant training plan. They were expressly forbidden from helping each other in any way.

'Figure it out on your own, for a change.' He'd snarked at them from behind his blatant porn. 'If you don't learn to stand on your own feet, you'll never improve. Teamwork's only worth it when all parties have something to contribute.'

So here they were. Sakura, alternating between glaring at the empty scroll and her detailed notes. Naruto, squatting a good distance away, howling in determination and producing zero results. Jiraiya, lounging in his chair but visibly quite done with the whole thing.

Progress happened, as it were, unexpectedly.

"That's it." Jiraiya had announced, drawing both Naruto's and Sakura's attention. "Yo, midget, c'mere."

"Who you calling a midget, geezer?" Naruto yelled, but he obediently came over, anyway.

So trusting, Naruto was.

Jiraiya bragged him by the shoulders and bodily flung him over the damn cliff. AT the bottom of which were very sharp rocks. And a deep pool.

And Naruto _couldn't fucking swim_.

Sakura's world exploded in a flood of cold horror and burning rage. Inner Sakura was struck speechless, rendered almost frozen in the recesses of Sakura's mind. It was as if a haze descended over her, as if somebody else was moving Sakura's body, commanding her chakra as its own.

She felt some of it speed down her arm and into the empty sealing scroll. Then, the scroll was flying through the air and colliding with jiraiya's head. He yelped, startled, and swung at something only he could see for several seconds until the Sannin threw off the genjutsu and shook his head to clear it.

Those seconds were enough.

Sakura rammed into him, feet planted on Jiraiya's chest in a rough kick, backed by all her unimpressive wight but also by precisely controlled chakra whose sole purpose was to main the degenerate who'd hurt Sakura's precious blonde. She was going to tear him apart, she didn't care who he was. Sannin, hero, legend – Sakura was going to cut his throat and watch him bleed until he was nothing, an empty husk of a pervert who messed with wrong fucking person.

"Sakura –" Jiraiya began, but Sakura cut him off.

She was crouched over him, legs applying pressure on Jiraiya's shoulders to keep him down in the little crater she'd created. One hand pulled on his hair with all the viciousness of a grieving girl who'd just seen a member of her family thrown to his death by someone they trusted. Someone who was meant to keep them safe. Her other hand pressed a kunai to his throat and pricked at his skin, drawing blood.

"You traitorous piece of scum," Sakura choked out, but she refused to cry. If she cried, it'll mar her sight. She owuldn't be able to see him die.

"Sakura, calm down –"

"How could you, how could you, I'll kill you!"

"Holy shit! Sakura-chan! Check out the size of this toad, dattebayo!"

'_What_?'


	13. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 13

**DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masasho Kishimoto.**

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**13.**

Giant toads summons. That's what Naruto got out of their time with Jiraiya.

Sure, his chakra control improved magnificently to the point he could give preform most exercises perfectly even without properly waking up, and his pervy jutsu was now so efficient it would land most shinobi in the hospital for severe blood loss. But truly, the toads were the highlight of it.

_Toads_.

Sakura patted herself on the back for coming out on top once again, and landing a useful skill rather than… well. Amphibians.

Overpowered taijutsu was the _shit_.

After Sakura's homicidal display she was almost confident Jiraiya would wash his hands off her. She put a kunai to his neck and cut the skin. Not deeply, but there was some blood involved and a lot of intent to maim. Sakura also swore at him, which Jiraiya normally couldn't stand. Oh, and she put him in the tiniest crater ever made, with her _dusty feet_. She would've understood and held nothing against him for kicking her butt out of his tutelage. Heaven only knows how Kakashi-sensei would've flipped had Sakura done any of those things to him.

Instead, Jiraiya cracked up for twenty minutes, during which Naruto strongly suspected he'd gone mad. The aging man howled something about 'karma', and repeatedly snickered that 'oh this is gold she'll love this', before ruffling Sakura's hair and telling her to buckle up. He had something fun to teach her.

And it _was_ fun.

The first time Sakura leveled a tree with a single kick, just a little over 48 hours after Jiraiya began teaching her how, she felt incredible. Naruto ran for his life and refused to spar with her from that moment, and Sakura chased him, demanding he let her see just how far she could throw his ramen-addicted ass. When pressed, Jiraiya grudgingly admitted it'll be months if not years until Naruto had a speck of the chakra control necessary to pull that sort of stunt, too. He could teach Sakura only because she had already achieved near-perfect chakra control on her own. Jiraiya hadn't developed the technique and wasn't an expert in control, himself. He could copy some of it, but he didn't know the basics.

Luckily, Sakura didn't want the basics.

She wanted to bash heads in.

And Jiraiya was glad to let her, cackling like a devil all the way.

* * *

"Forehead, what the fuck are you wearing?" Ino asked, and though her tone was completely neutral Sakura could practically scent Ino's shock.

It was the day of the third round, finally. Naruto and Sakura were currently standing in the designated sidelines, bored out of their minds, and waiting for Kakashi-sensei to return with their brooding third teammate. Naruto couldn't wait to summon Gamabunta on top of Sasuke's head, and Sakura was also curious to see how _that_ unfolded. Preferably from a safe distance with a camera on hand, because that explosion would definitely be one for the books.

Naruto was decked out in his favorite yellow tracksuit, sealing scroll thrown over his shoulder and gleaming forehead protector in place. Currently he was talking Hinata's ears off, telling the blushing but smiling girl in detail about the great breakfast Sakura's mother had prepared for them that day.

"Ramen-themed, dattebayo!" Naruto all but squealed in excitement, under Hinata's soft and indulgent smile.

Sakura wore her spandex shorts, an orange shirt Naruto had let her borrow, protective wraps around her knees and hands, and her headband over her forehead, with her hair in a tightly braided bun as per usual. She was in the middle of rolling her eyes at Naruto when Ino's question got her attention.

Ino was eyeing the orange shirt with open horror.

"What?" Sakura blinked.

"It's orange!" Ino hissed. "It's got Naruto's family crest on it!"

"So?"

"There's holes and stains!" Ino said, completely horrified.

"Yeah, that's the point."

"Oh my god, Forehead! What if Sasuke-kun _sees_?!"

"Screw Teme," Naruto piped up, "yo, Shikamaru, Choji."

"Sup?" Shikamaru managed, clearly not entirely awake yet. Choji hadn't even opened his eyes, Shikamaru was discreetly holding him up with his strange shadow jutsu. Hinata peeked over Naruto's shoulder and waved at the three.

"If Sasuke has a problem, he can lend me one of his." Sakura said flatly. "I'm not ruining _my_ clothes for this."

"Why do you have to ruin any clothes?" Ino growled. "What are you, a brute?!"

Sakura grumbled and Naruto guffawed.

Hinata, who saw Sakura put Naruto through a wall just the day before and consequently destroy a nice long-sleeved blouse, chuckled softly and patted Sakura on the arm.

"Just, trust me." Sakura muttered.

"Oi, Pinky!" Jiraiya's voice dragged Sakura's gaze to the crowd, where he lounged on a seat with a busty bimbo on either side, like some great mafioso. Her eyebrow ticked in annoyance. "Nice getup!"

Sakura flipped him off.

"That's my girl!" Jiraiya cackled. "Make me proud, Naruto!"

"Pervy-sage!" Naruto yelled, waving excitedly. "You'll cheer for us, right?!"

Jiraiya saluted them and wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Believe it, 'ttebayo!" Naruto fist bumped the air, and Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, praying for strength.

"Who's the hedgehog?" Ino asked dryly.

"Ah, Jiraiya-sama." Sakura slapped on the honorific on instinct. It was once thing to badmouth Jiraiya to his face, she'd earned the right to, but Sakura couldn't quite bring herself to disrespect a revered hero in public. Not quite yet at least. Maybe once she made jonin she'll run her mouth.

"No way." Shimarau raised an eyebrow. "The Sannin?"

"Yep." Sakura rolled her eyes. "He's exactly what you're thinking."

"No way." Choji echoed.

"Way," Naruto nodded, "we were surprised, too. He's insane."

"He's a menace to society." Sakura contradicted.

"You both sound suspiciously fond of him." Ino drawled.

'He taught us to smash!' Inner Sakura cheered, 'he has out eternal admiration!'

'With limitations.' Sakura thought.

"Eh," She said with a shrug, "he grows on ya."

'Like fungus.' Inner Sakura added and Sakura did her best not to focus too much on that mental image.

"Well, he knew my mom." Naruto said flatly, "and he admits it, unlike everybody else."

"That, too." Sakura hummed.

Shikamaru and Choji abruptly woke up and Ino's jaw dropped. Hinata, too, looked surprised. And so Sakura and Naruto found themselves retelling verbatim everything Jiraiya has ever mentioned about Uzumaki Kushina during the two weeks he's been talking about her. There wasn't much, but it was still better than absolutely nothing.

* * *

The third round began with a bang – literally.

The first match was between two foreign nin – one a little redhaired girl from Kusa with square glasses, and the other a lanky sort of creep with that strange headband Sakura couldn't recognize, marked with a single note. Before the bespectacled girl could even make a single step the dude opened his mouth and let out the loudest yell Sakura ever heard. The shockwave alone was enough to send the girl flying straight into the arena wall and losing consciousness. It was too brief to leave any fort of impression, on either contestant.

"Lame." Ino said dryly.

"Yeah, just like our duel's gonna be!" Kiba mocked from his place a few feet to their right. He'd been paired against Ino, and their match was third of the day. He'd been consistently grating on the girls' nerves since then, bragging about how easily his victory would be achieved. "No offence, Ino, but I'm gonna pound you. I'll take you on a date as compensation, yeah?"

"The day I date you, dog-breath, is the day I grow a dick." Ino drawled. "You know, to replace that lil' peanut you've got."

Sakura buried her head in Naruto's shoulder and snorted, while Naruto looked at Ino in open admiration. Kiba wasn't his favourite person lately, with his snarky attitude, and the way Ino had just rendered him completely speechless put her firmly in the top ten of Naruto's 'beloved idol' list.

"Tenten-nee!" Choji called, completely ignoring his surroundings. "Good luck!"

"Oh, it's Tenten's turn?" Sakura promptly straightened up – only to lean over the railing alongside Naruto and cheer loudly for their friend.

Tenten has made it onto the arena, and was eyeing up her opponent – who'd made a dramatic entrance, gliding to the ground on top of a gigantic fan. It was one of the weird Suna nin, Sakura noted. Sabaku no Temair, according to the proctor overseeing the fights. She was older then them, that much was obvious, and pretty, with golden hair and sharp green eyes. But the scorn in her eyes, her mocking expression, took away any sort of appeal she could've had.

"Sabaku no Temari." Naruto said, "that's a weird name."

"She's the Kazekage's daughter." Shikamaru drawled.

"How do you know?" Ino asked.

"Sabaku." Sakura said flatly. "Come off it, Pig. They taught us that at the academy. The children of the Kazekage clan in Suna are all titled 'Sabaku'. It's their literal name."

"Well excuse me for having better things to do –"

"Making kissy faces at Teme doesn't count." Naruto said without looking away from Tenten's rapidly escalating fight. "Tenten's not gonna make it."

"No way!" Sakura blinked and focused on the battle. "But Tenten's been on a ton of missions. She trains very hard."

"Doesn't matter." Shikamaru murmured. "that Suna chick – she's no genin."

After observing the fight for a while longer, Sakura had to agree. Tenten had unraveled her entire scroll and emptied all her pouches. She had a blade in each hand, was panting with exertion and had already littered the ground between them with a large variety of weapons – all meant to pierce Temari. Not only wasn't the Kazekage's daughter hurt, she hadn't even budged from her spot. Her fan was on the ground beside her, still closed, and as Sakura watched, Tenten unleashed another wave of shard projectiles only for Temari to literally wave them away with only one piece of her fan briefly unfolding.

"Fuuton," Sakura hummed. "It's your chakra nature, right Naruto?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "But I can't use it like that."

"I don't think even Asuma-sensei can," Choji noted quietly, "he's a fuuton type, too."

"She's not using it." Sakura clarified, "not really. She – she's toying with Tenten. She'd _bored_."

It was so one sided it was both humiliating and painful to watch. Especially for Sakura, because of more than one reason. First of all, both she and Tenten were from civilian clans. Sure, Sakura's father made chunin at the age of twenty, but he only bothered with it to have permission to marry her mother. He'd not been on a mission since then – nearly thirty years ago. Second, like Sakura, Tenten had no special jutsu in her arsenal and no bloodline limit. Third, both of them existed in the shadow of their spectacular teammates and worked themselves into the ground in an effort to escape from it. Sakura saw firsthand just how determined Tenten was to be worthy of notice, to be as useful and impressive as the boys on her team. Lee-san didn't have any chakra, but he was a beast at taijutsu and Hyuuga Neji – he was the strongest youngster in the entire Hyuuga clan, according to Hinata and Hanabi. A literal monster in the making.

But most of all, Tenten was Sakura's friend, who'd supported her through hardships, hung out with her during the good times and constantly cheered her own.

When Temari finally opened her fan completely, after draining everything Tenten had, Sakura felt her heart squeeze painfully at the sight of the miniature tornado swipe up her friend, toss her about like a rag and then discard her, sprawled unconscious with her back unnaturally bent over the edge of Temari's fan. Temari shook Tenten off, like she was something dirty, and walked away – not even sparing her crumpled opponent a glance, as the proctor announced her the victor.

"She'll pay for that." Ino hissed, her blue eyes like twin blocks of ice. "You hear me, Shika? Trash her!"

Shikamaru 'tsked' unhappily, but something about his frown told Sakura he'd already planned an easy defeat of his scheduled opponent – Shino – and was working on a strategy against the Suna kunoichi. Even if Shikamaru won't win against her, he'll make sure to humiliate the bitch.

"The next round will now begin! Yamanaka Ino from Konoha and Inuzuka Kiba, also from Konoha, please enter the arena!" the proctor called.

Kiba swaggered off, smirking cockily, and waving at the crowd.

"Beat his ass, Ino-Pig." Sakura said, her eyebrow ticking in annoyance at the display.

"Don't worry, Billboard Brow." Ino cracked her knuckles menacingly before climbing over the railing and beginning to descend along the wall, in a fantastic display of chakra control.

"Everybody shut up!" Naruto demanded, "I need to commit this to memory!"

'Damn straight!' Inner Sakura snickered. 'Pig's pissed! It's gonna be spectacular!'

It was spectacular.

It was a heavenly display of watching the most chauvinistic bully of their graduating class getting his ass handed to him by Konoha's reigning beauty queen – aged under fifteen.

Ino didn't even let Kiba run his mouth after their handshake. She pounced, like an enraged cat, and leveled Akamaru with a kick to his sensitive nose, taking both opponent by surprise. Akamaru had never been the target of an attack before, due to his unassuming f appearance. The puppy may have been cute and friendly, but he was Kiba's best weapon and Ino was never weak towards fluffy things. As an enraged Kiba tried to take a swing at her, Ino ducked, pivoted, and then very dramatically kneed him straight in the balls.

This was enough to win the fight, but Sakura only knew one person more vindictive and spiteful than her Inner Self – the one who taught her how to be this way. Yamanaka Ino.

Before the proctor's amused gaze, Ino trapped Kiba in her family's Mind Transfer Jutsu and proceeded to beat the absolute daylight out of him, with his own fists. She ripped out his hair, scratched his face, made him wedgie himself. It was the most hilariously horrifying thing Sakura had ever beheld. Most of all it was petty, childish, and entirely inappropriate for the occasion.

It reminded Sakura just why she loved Ino so much.

* * *

By the time Ino was properly satisfied and marched out of the arena, Naruto was on the floor, a wheezing mess, Shikamaru had long looked away, completely embarrassed by his teammates shameless tenacity, while Choji chuckled softly under his breath. Over by the teacher's stands Asuma-sensei was hiding his face in his hand while Kiba's jonin instructor Kurenai-sensei laughed and elbowed him in the side.

Kiba was hauled off by a team of medics, Ino was pulled to the side by a heavily blushing Inoichi, undoubtedly, to be reprimanded for improper use of secret clan teachings. Sakura gave her best friend a discreet thumbs up for the performance and was rewarded by a salacious wink – obviously, Ino wasn't at all repentant. Sakura snickered as Inoichi leveled a sharp smack to the back of his daughter's head and the two descended into an argument.

Not for the first time Sakura found herself wishing her own father were a little bit more like Inoichi. While she had no doubt that Kizashi loved her very much, Sakura's dad never actually talked to her. He insisted on treating Sakura like a little girl and flat out refused to discuss anything remotely serious in her presence. Inoichi has somehow found the perfect balance between protecting Ino and also grooming her into adulthood, and they had a remarkably close bond as a result of it. Sakura's father coddled her, and more often than not Sakura felt that he was a beloved stranger.

Sakura was so caught up in her own thoughts she completely lost track of the matches happening below. She probably would've stayed unfocused till the rector called for a break, had Naruto not yelled a loud, horrified 'no', echoed by a shrill scream in Ino's voice and a gasp from Choji. From the crowd of spectators a childish voice screeched 'onee-sama!'.

Sakura snapped to attention and immediately looked for the threat. She followed Naruto's wide blue eyes and found herself gasping, covering her mouth with trembling hands and automatically chanting a denial in her head.

Because in the arena was Hinata – cute, kind, soft, absolutely loveable Hinata – and there were three sharp blades skewering her through her torso. Blood stained Hinata's usually pristine clothes and it poured in an alarmingly thick trail out of her nose also. A moment later, Hinata coughed up more blood, swayed and crumpled to the floor.

Above her stood Sabaku no Kankuro, eyeing what looked like the remains of a puppet critically and clicking his tongue in disapproval.

"Damn, broke my prototype." Was all he said before he used Hinata as a steppingstone on his way out of the arena, just as a team of frantic medics rushed in.

"What a disappointment." Said an unfamiliar baritone coldly from behind, and Sakura twisted around just in time to grab Naruto's arm and stop him from lunging at Hyuuga Neji.

"What did you say?" Naruto demanded.

"That she is a disappointment." Neji drawled, unrepentant. "She always was. Just another weakling lucky enough to be born in the Hyuuga's main branch. Otherwise she would've been tossed out years ago, for being such a waste of space."

Sakura's eyes widened and inside her, Inner Sakura was struck speechless by anger. She never knew anyone could be so… so…

"You spiteful piece of shit." Sakura heard herself say.

"I'll make you pay for saying this!" Naruto snarled simultaneously, drowning Sakura out with his aggression. "Hinata's ten times better than you'll ever be, asshole!"

"Oh?" Neji sniffed condescendingly. "You think so? I heard you're the dead last of your class. Figures you'd approve of her."

"Well this dead last is about to rip you a new one." Sakura said coldly and gestured towards the match board.

They'd loaded up the names of the contestants going up after the midday break. First, were Naruto Uzumaki versus Hyuuga Neji. Immediately after them, was Sakura's own fight, against one Yakushi Kabuto.

Neji looked decidedly unimpressed. He gave Naruto a half-hearted onceover, scoffed and walked away.

"Naruto," Sakura said, "you better take the stick out his ass and beat him with it."

"Believe it," Naruto grumbled. "That jerk is going down, dattebayo! For Hinata-chan!"

'For Hinata, Shannaro!' Inner Sakura agreed ferociously.

'Damn straight.'


	14. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 14

**DISCLAIMER:** Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto. Shefalls holds no claim to it.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**14.**

"He's going to lose."

"No, he isn't. He'll pound that jerk's ass."

"Agree to disagree, then."

"Hmph!"

Sakura and Tenten stood close together, leaning on the rail around the arena and sharing a bag of chips. Sakura pointedly turned her torso away from Tenten and the other girl had scrunched up her face in annoyance. They were openly annoyed and in the middle of a disagreement, but also nervous over the same thing – which encouraged them to seek comfort from each other. Below, on the ground, Naruto was stretching with an angry frown marring his usually bright expression. In front of him Neji stood stoically, completely unbothered.

"You really think Naruto can handle this, Forehead?" Ino asked frankly and Sakura turned around to meet her best friend's stern gaze. Unlike Tenten, Ino was asking solely for Sakura's sake – it was easy to see she didn't much care who would win, but worried for Sakura's sake.

"I do, Ino-Pig." Sakura nodded and flashed Ino a confident smile. "Naruto's got this. Believe it!"

"Believe it, huh?" Ino huffed, and came over to lean on Sakura's free side. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Then keep your eyes wide open." Sakura warned and then yelled loudly, "Beat him up Naruto! Shannaro!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto waved cheerfully, "believe it!"

"Pathetic." Neji said flatly, and that one comment silenced the buzzing conversations happening all over the front rows of the arena. This silence carried and spread all over until it reigned supreme, to the point one could hear a pin drop into the sand below.

"What did you say?" Naruto growled and those who knew him well would've heeded the warning in his tone, because Naruto was never quiet, nor serious. Not unless he was fuming.

Neji, of course, didn't know Naruto. So all he did was sneer, which would've been just fine had he not followed it by opening his mouth and talking.

"I said, you're pathetic." Neji mocked, not showing an ounce of the famous Hyuuga restraint.

'Well damn.' Inner Sakura mused.

"You don't have a chance here. You were born to lose to me, we come from different worlds."

'Ooh,' Inner Sakura whistled, 'that's harsh.'

"Your destiny is to always be nothing."

'Oi! Uncalled for!' Inner Sakura yelled.

'Will you shut up?!' Sakura wailed, 'you're distracting!'

"And anyone who supports you are equally as pathetic, idiotic and weak as you are."

Tenten promptly put her face in her hands and groaned, while Sakura felt her mouth twitch.

"Boy done did it." Ino said flatly, completely unimpressed.

"What did you just call Sakura-chan?" Naruto all but snarled.

"Pathetic." Neji said slowly, mockingly. "Idiotic and weak, just. Like. You."

In the stands above them, Sakura picked up on Jiraiya's badly muffled laughter. It was echoed loudly in her own head, by Inner Sakura who was having the time of her life measuring the depth of the grave Neji had just dug for himself.

"Neji, you _moron_." Tenten complained, "you absolute moron."

"You can say whatever you want about me," Naruto said coldly, "but never, ever, insult my friends. Especially not Sakura-chan!"

Then he lunged.

"It's not gonna be an open casket." Sakura said dryly when Naruto's fist connected solidly with the surprised Neji's jaw. Clearly, the Hyuuga prodigy didn't expect Naruto to be quite that fast.

"He just had to bait him." Ino rolled her eyes, "dude doesn't have a shot against an angry Naruto. Freak can go on for _days_."

"I told him to shut up," Tenten moaned in defeat. "I warned him so many times. Why can't he ever listen to me?!"

Sakura was sorely tempted to say it was because Neji was a dick, but below them the rude boy had gathered his wits and was pushing back against Naruto's angry assault. It was too fast, his recovery rate. Or rather, Naruto's pace significantly slowed down. After that first fast and harsh punch, Naruto almost seemed to falter, and if Sakura didn't know any better she'd say that hit was a lucky shot.

But she did know better.

Sakura trained with Naruto every morning for close to two years now. She knew exactly what he could do. She'd seen him keep up with Lee's furious pace for close to twenty minutes during their last spar together. Naruto had taijutsu _down_. The sloppy, slow movements he was using right now belonged more in a drunken brawl than in a duel between shinobi – not that Sakura'd ever seen anyone drunk before, or brawling. But she could guess.

"What the hell is Naruto doing?" Ino hissed.

"What?" Tenten blinked and then, after a moment of observation, frowned. "That's not Naruto's taijutsu."

"Nope." Sakura agreed. "I have no idea what he's doing."

And she really couldn't reason Naruto's obvious negligence. Especially when not even a moment later Neji began the famed Hyuuga 64 Palm sequence and Naruto didn't even try to avoid it. Neji's arms and palms delivered precise strikes to main pressure points all over Naruto's body, with increasing frequency and strength. At the end of the very last formation, Naruto crumpled to the ground and Neji stood above him – not even panting, just wearing the same condescending expression as always.

"And… that was anti-climatic." Tenten said flatly. "Told you he'll lose."

"Man, I thought Naruto had it." Ino made a face.

"Pfft." Sakura rolled her eyes, "don't blink, you'll miss it."

Her two friends seemed to briefly forget Naruto had a not so little badly kept secret sleeping hidden in his body. Bound and sealed, but very much alive and most likely quite aware of its surrounding if it wasn't coherent. Naruto's natural chakra was massive enough on its own, but practically from birth it has been cocooned by a much large reserve, almost endless in its depths. The Kyubi's chakra will not be subdued by a low-rank technique every Hyuuga, even the most untalented, could preform.

'Ye of little faith!' Inner Sakura mocked, as over on the sand, Naruto gave a twitch.

"Maa," Naruto sat back up smoothly and then climbed to his feet, wiggling his limbs and flexing his neck, as if he were trying to stretch the muscles. "That all you've got, jackass?"

"This isn't possible." Neji said flatly. "No one can move after receiving all one hundred and eighteen strikes."

"Yeah, well, I'm not just anyone." Naruto snorted and moved his hands into the familiar sign of his favourite Kage Bunshin. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be Hokage, got it? But first I'm beating you up, dattebayo!"

They came from virtually everywhere. Erupted from the ground, slid off the walls and popped into existence around Naruto himself, without any further warning. A mass of clones, at the very least fifty of them, yelled different battle cries and charged at the bewildered Neji in perfect sync, from every direction.

Sakura consciously decided to savor the look of horror on Neji's face for the rest of her life, and if Tenten's loud snort was anything to go by – her brunette friend would do the same.

The clones closed in and for a moment it looked like Neji was buried alive by the wiggling orange mass. Then, quite suddenly, the clones were blown away by rapidly spinning blue chakra, creating a virtual whirlpool around Neji – who was the source of it. He was spinning and pushing chakra out of his body in a move neither of the genin had ever seen before, but proved quite effective against the barrage of hostiles. As the last clone popped out of existence, Neji slowed down and came to a stop, eyeing the vacated arena dully.

"How useless." He said monotonously.

"Uh-huh," Naruto agreed, from his spot right behind the older boy and promptly wacked him on the head with his sealing scroll in a ragingly unorthodox move. It was quite effective though – Neji crashed against the opposite wall and slid down to the ground, spitting blood out of his mouth and rubbing at his injured head. Naruto had smacked Neji's hitai-ate clear off his head, and Neji's touch further dislodged the bandaged wrapped around his forehead – revealing strange markings on his fair skin.

"Lowlife scum." Neji spat angrily.

"That is a seal." Naruto said, at the exact same time, his tone shocked. "A supressing seal. Why the hell is there supressing seal on your face, dattebayo?!"

'A what the fuck kind of seal?' Inner Sakura asked, stunned beyond words.

Sakura knew what a supressing seal was. There were different types of it, different levels of power and degrees of control, but all of them did one thing – they supressed something. Ruthlessly, without an escape route. Often times, they did it painfully. They were used to subdue dangerous enemies, like S-ranked nuke-nin or, well, the thing inside Naruto. No supressing seals should be branded onto the forehead of a _fifteen year old Konoha shinobi_.

"This?" Neji asked, his tone blank. "This is the Caged Bird seal of the Hyuuga branch family."

"The branch family?" Naruto spluttered, completely scandalized. "All the Hyuuga's have them?!"

"No." Neji said sharply. "Only us, branch family members. The main family is above such things. They are free people, we are bound slaves."

"Tenten," Ino said, a little shakily, "what the fuck?"

"I – I've never seen this before." Tenten's eyes were round with surprise. "I thought he had some sort of scar or birthmark, I didn't know. Oh, _Neji_."

"This is my destiny." Neji said coldly. "To live and die for the main house, like all branch family members. This seal is all I am. My fate has already been decided, and so was yours, Uzumaki Naruto. You can't defeat me with your weak skills."

"You talk big for someone who stinks of fear."

'Oh no he _didn't_.' Inner Sakura cackled, like a lunatic. 'Go Naruto! Rip him a new one!'

'Might not be a good idea, all things considered.' Sakura fretted.

'It's the best idea!'

The tips of Neji's ears reddened in fury, Sakura could see it all the way from her spot, and Naruto took it as his cue to carry on.

"You're a coward." Naruto said flatly. "You hate your lot in life, but instead of fighting against it you take it laying down, like a bitch."

'Hey, we taught him that phrase!" Inner Sakura said excitedly.

'In retrospect, we shouldn't have.'

"You whine, and you mope about like a total loser, bemoaning your predestined fate or whatever, and you don't do anything to change it." Naruto huffed, "not because it's set in stone, nothing's set in stone. I was last in my graduating class, but I ain't the weak link anymore! I got a grip and improved. When I don't like something I change it, dattebayo! I never back down! I never give up! That's my ninja way. That's why I'll always defeat you."

"Worthless –"

"I'm worth hundreds of you!" Naruto cut Neji off stubbornly. "Hinata worth hundreds of you, too! Because she doesn't give up, either! When her old man kicked her out she didn't give up, she just trained harder!"

"Shut up!"

"When everybody mocked her, Hinata carried on with her head held high, because she knows she can do it!"

"I said, shut up!"

"Hinata believes in herself, and I believe in her, too! She's brave and amazing, and you're just a coward!"

"Shut your mouth!" Neji screamed and lunged forward, gathering so much chakra in his palms they gained a visible blue glow. "Forbidden Hyuuga art: Kyusho!"

'Did he just say Death Touch?!' Inner Sakura shrieked.

Sakura made to lunge over the railing, to put herself in front of Naruto and screw the consequences, but by the time she hoisted her foot up Neji had already made contact. He hit Naruto straight in the stomach, where under the layers of his clothes Sakura knew the seal of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox was hidden. And quite suddenly she realised the Byakugan could see chakra, so even if Neji didn't know what the hell he'd just poked, he was definitely aware of the fact it was _dangerous_. And he was willing to risk it, to win against Naruto.

To kill him.

"I'll rip you apart!" Sakura screeched, infuriated, and the only things keeping her in place were a pair of strong arms planted firmly on her shoulders. She looked up, determined to yell at the offender, and met eyes with a scowling Jiraiya.

"Do not." He warned. "Naruto will be alright."

"He stabbed him in the stomach!"

"He tried to." Jiraiya snorted. "Boy's got guts, but not the strength. Watch."

Sakura turned around and exhaled, nearly melting to her knees in relief, when all Neji achieved was to cause Naruto to look down in confusion at the spot where Neji's hand touched his stomach. Naruto's expression flickered from confused to startled, confused again and then so mischievous Sakura felt a trickle of dread down her spine. Naruto's green was positively fox-like, and that was never a good thing.

"Alright, I'll trust ya." Naruto said loudly, grabbed hold of Neji's arm and gathered his own chakra in his hands – a bright and angry orange. "No hard feeling, eh, Neji? See ya!"

Naruto's chakra exploded. It literally exploded, with a loud boom and a whiplash of wind out of nowhere. When the dust and sand cleared several minutes later, Naruto was just fine. Neji, however, was face down on the floor on the far side of the arena, unconscious and bleeding from his ears.

"Victor, Uzumaki Naruto!" the proctor announced.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura whooped.

"The next contestants, please enter the arena! Haruno Sakura versus Yakushi Kabuto, both of Konoha!"

'Aw, shit.'

"Sakura." Jiraiya clapped her on the back just as Skaura made to move and she gave him a curious look. "Chin up. That Kabuto kid –"

"I know, JIraiya-sama." Sakura said seriously.

Kabuto had given her the creeps back in the first stage of the exam. She won't be letting her guard down, not even for a moment. Especially not if Jiraiya was worried about him, too. Pervert or not, the man was a legendary Sanin.

"Good girl." Jiraiya nodded. "Give him hell, eh?"

"Count on it!" Sakura agreed and marched towards the arena, fist bumping the victorious Naruto as she went.

It was time to show them what she had.


	15. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 15

**DISCLAIMER:** Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto

* * *

**A/N**

Once again my darlings, this is an AU. Alternate Universe.

Team 7 are fourteen years old, they've been training with Kakashi for two years before the chunin exams – not one, like they did in the manga. I changed the timeline. Why? Because I _can_. If such changes bother you be warned: this is the _lightest_ change going on. More are incoming. Spare us all your rage and move on.

As always, thank you so much for reading this story. Your reviews and comments are always, always welcome – even if I seem snarky about it.

Enjoy.

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**WARNING:** multiple POVs, violence.

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**The Leaves of the Tree**

**15.**

For the first time in a long time, Kakashi only partially late. And for the second time, that he could remember, it was entirely unconsciously done.

He genuinely believed Sasuke would need every last second of training he could get before his fight – not to overpower the opponent, no, Kakashi was quite certain all three of his genin could handle themselves. What Sasuke needed was practice ignoring Orochimaru's seal.

Sasuke needed to build up a spine. That was the unpleasant truth of the matter. He had to learn to rely on his own strength and want only it, to refuse outside influences entirely, in just the span of two months at the age of fourteen. It was difficult enough for non traumatised people. Sasuke, with his thirst for vengeance, was a whole new mess.

As Kakashi discreetly snuck into the arena while Sasuke marched stoically behind him, he sincerely hoped what they'd managed to do will be enough.

Spotting Naruto in the crowd was easy enough. No one else dressed in that particular shade of acidic yellow. He was perched on the rail, excitedly swinging his feet back and forth, and deep in conversation with the familiar towering form of Jiraiya. The other genin and co gave the two a wide enough berth, so it was no problem at all for Kakashi to squeeze in, firmly planting Sasuke by his side and preventing him from antagonising anybody, as he tended to do.

"Yo." Kakashi said, as eloquent as ever.

"Gah Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto put a hand over his heart in a dramatic gesture he must've learned from Sakura. "Don't creep up like that, 'ttebayo!"

"Dobe." Sasuke said dryly. Kakashi spent enough time with the Last Uchiha to know he'd meant something along the lines of 'you're a terrible excuse for a shinobi', and he didn't doubt Naruto got the memo loud and clear, judging by her scowl.

"Up yours, Sasuke-teme." Naruto snarked, "I'm too busy watching Sakura-chan!"

Ah.

So that was why Naruto was so nervous. And why Yamanaka Ino and Gai's female student were holding hands a little to the right. Well, no matter who she faced, after two months under Jiraiya's tutelage Sakura could definitely handle it. Unless it was Gaara, of course. Or that other weird one, whatever his name.

"Yakushi Kabuto," Jiraiya said sternly, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Yes that's the one. Wait.

_**What**_.

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The fight had just begun. No weapons were thrown around the arena and it was mostly undisturbed from previous duels. The proctor leaned against one of the stone walls casually, eyeing up the contestants with open boredom. Clearly, this was expected to be boring and quick.

Jiraiya almost cackled aloud at that. The poor, miserable idiots had no clue what they just signed up for. But _he_ knew. He taught her how to do it.

When Sakura first fell under his tutelage Jiraiya was suspicious. Kakashi very rarely handed out compliments, but he seemed to be genuinely impressed with that tiny girl's ferocity and would only let Jiraiya near Naruto, his godson mind you!, if she were involved as well. Jiraiya had gone with, it wasn't like it was a loss training someone who would definitely grow up real pretty. Sakura was a good student, too. Smart, dedicated. Fucking amazing chakra control, too; the likes of which he'd not seen since Tsunade-hime.

But that was about it. After one week Jiraiya knew Sakura had it in her to be a very good jonin, could branch out into medicine if she wanted to and excel in that field, hell she could even make a decent enough T&I officer, what with her talent for genjutsu. But she didn't have the same magnitude of talent as Naruto. Jiraiya couldn't shape her into a legend, and so he lost interest, gave her something to work on and focused back on the brat. Of course, he'd grown tired of Naruto's obtuseness and decided to chuck him off the cliff to give the fox a nudge in the cooperative direction. That was the best decision he ever made.

Not even a second later, Sakura'd _levelled_ him.

Jiraiya absolutely didn't see it coming. Not the disturbingly gory genjutsu of his own mutilated corpse that trapped him for a full minute, or the dainty little feet that packed the power of a raging behemoth and put him in an impressive crater – for a first timer – as soon as he got back to his senses. What really got him though, were Sakura's eyes.

The girl was anguished, completely horrified. There was a very thick sheen of tears over her green eyes, but she didn't let them fall. Instead she bared her teeth, snarled and put a kunai to his throat. She would've cut him open without hesitation, Jiraiya had no doubt about it. Sakura would've made it long, painful and absolutely nightmare inducing if she had the means, too. And she wouldn't lose any sleep over her justified vengeance either.

The girl had a set of balls made of pure steel on her, and that, more than anything, got Jiraiya hooked. It changed his entire opinion of her. In his mind, he named Sakura as Naruto's bodyguard when the loud kid inevitably made Hokage, and decided to teach her properly.

Jiraiya sincerely doubted Kakashi realised he wasn't getting the girl back, ever. No sir. She was Jiraiya's masterpiece in the making now.

His little berserker was staring at Kabuto through narrowed eyes, hunched into the standard academy battle stance with a kunai at the ready. It was acting of the highest grade, in Jiraiya's humble opinion. Anybody who knew Sakura could tell this wasn't her opening stance, nor did she hold a kunai with her entire fist. It seemed that she'd taken Jiraiya's warning to heart and was going to adopt Naruto's favourite approach: fake it till you make it.

Kabuto had said something, too softly for his voice to carry over the stands. Sakura blushed a very vivid red and flung her kunai in an accurate, but too weak, move. Just like that – it was on. Or, well, it would've been if Sakura was completely incompetent and Kabuto was less that an ANBU level traitorous piece of – ehm.

"The hell?" Naruto frowned and tilted his head. "What's she doing?"

"What you did." Jiraiya drawled.

"Oh." Naruto blinked. "Why? Isn't he super weak?"

"Ma, Naruto," Kakashi drawled. If he wasn't holding on to the railing for dear life Jiraiya would've bought into his nonchalant façade. "Look underneath the underneath, would you?"

"Hn." The Uchiha kid snorted disdainfully. "Sakura's better than this, at least."

"At least?" Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Look well, boy. You might learn something."

It happened in the span of a second. Sakura ducked under a lazy kick from Kabuto, whipped up another kunai and with a fast, ruthless movement slashed it upwards. The sharp blade cut into Kabuto's face as if it were sculpted out of butter, tearing into skin and flesh in a rough jagged line from his chin, up and across his left eye. Through his left eye.

As soon as she delivered her strike Sakura retreated, as graceful as a cat, while Kabuto sprung away and howled in pain. If Jiraiya was any less desensitized to blood, he would've noticed something else going on. Something he should've expected, but didn't.

Truly, that girl would end up his pride and joy, he was sure of it.

"You!" Kabuto shrieked shrilly. His left palm glowed green as he quickly treated the injury, but it was pointless. He'd already lost his eye, there was no doubt about it.

Sakura'd long ago learned to poison her weapons. Kakashi himself had seen to that.

"Me." Sakura said somberly.

"Stupid little whore!" Kabuto snarled and lunged. His movements were fast, now. As fast and precise as any top ANBU. Merciless, without a shred of hesitation. First he hit Sakura in the stomach, then over the back of her nape. As she fell to her knees, the enraged nin began stomping on her thin back viciously, all the while spouting increasingly vulgar curses and threats.

Whatever cover Kabuto had tried to maintain, something about being half-blinded by a civilian born pink-haired slip of a girl just hit him too close to heart. The best spy would eventually reach a cracking point, Jiraiya knew this. It was inevitable, it was human nature. Only inhuman things maintained cover at all costs in all situations. Kabuto, as it turned out, still had some humanity in him.

And Sakura rubbed him _very wrong_.

"Brilliant!" Jiraiya nodded proudly. "Beautifully done."

"What?" Sasuke hissed.

"She's getting pounded out there!" Naruto wailed, "oi, Sakura-chan! Get a grip!"

Kakashi frowned and lifted his hitai-ate, revealing an anxiously spinning sharingan. He took one look at the arena and promptly sagged in relief, to the point he almost swayed where he stood.

"Of course," Kakashi muttered. "Genjutsu-type."

"Genjutsu?" Naruto demanded, "what do you mean, genjutsu?!"

Sasuke's black eyes changed into his own sharingan and he, too, studied the arena carefully. It took the boy longer than it did Kakashi to spot Sakura's work, but it spoke more about just how good she'd gotten than Sasuke's talent with his clan's dojutsu.

"That's not Sakura." Sasuke said, completely bewildered.

"Nope," Jiraiya wiggled his eyebrows, "brilliant, isn't it?"

* * *

Sakura burrowed deeper into her little den, directly underneath Kabuto, and focused on her chakra.

It really was a stroke of genius on her part, to cast that mass genjutsu when Kabuto was distracted. She hadn't expected her attack to connect, in all honesty. She was still testing the waters, trying to calculate exactly how outmatched she was, when she decided to make a spontaneous sort of swipe at Kabuto's politely smiling face. It told her more than she cared to know about just how much Kabuto underestimated her.

'Were we really that pathetic?' Sakura mused. 'It wasn't even that fast of a swipe!'

'We were pretty damn pathetic, and you know it.' Inner Sakura said candidly. 'We wouldn't have even dared do it, before.'

'Blood stains are hell to wash out, okay?!'

'Well lucky you, your hair's bound and you're in Naruto's shirt.' Inner Sakura drawled.

Which was another brilliant decision, in Sakura's opinion.

With a careful manipulation of her chakra, Sakura made her illusion-self roll away from Kabuto's furious kick, but only as far as her back. Then she spat at him, and hit him straight in the face.

"You're the wimp, asshole," Sakura made her illusion-self say, in a clear and strong voice. "Ganging up on a girl over a little cut. Pussy."

Kabuto's foot slammed down with enough force to shake the earth above Sakura's head. Had he been fighting a real person, their ribs would've concaved under the assault, no doubt. But he wasn't, and Sakura was pretty sure she'd successfully driven him into a blind rage to the point he wouldn't notice until she enlightened him.

Which would be soon enough, right after she moved a little bit more to the left and – ah ha!

'Time to come up for air.' She decided firmly.

"Any last words, trash?!" Kabuto yelled.

"Oi! No murder is allowed –" the proctor began, but Sakura's voice rang out clear and strong from behind Kabuto, just as the girl he'd been beating up melted into nothing.

"Yeah," Sakura growled, "this is how you punch, moron!"

She exploded from the earth in a dramatic manipulation of Kakashi-sensei's favourite hiding jutsu and slammed her chakra-enforced fist straight into Kabuto's head. He crashed into the packed earth and then under it, creating an impressive crater at least six feet deep and cracking the closes arena wall severely. The whole stadium seemed to shake with the after shocks of Sakura's punch, and as the dust settled Sakura could be seen poking at Kabuto's still form with the very tip of her shoe.

"I didn't kill him." She told the proctor seriously. "SO you can't disqualify me!"

"I – what?" the proctor blinked. "I mean, victor! Haruno Sakura, from Konoha!"

"Damn straight!" Inner Sakura hollered.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura fist bumped the air and sought out Naruto in the stands.

He was jumping in circles around a smug looking Jiraiya, wildly waving his arms and cheering at the top of his lungs. Beside him, Kakashi-sensei gave her his trademark eye-squinting smile and Sakura returned it with a bright grin and made her way over.

"Well done, Sakura-chan." Kakashi-sensei patted her on the head fondly.

"That's one heck of a punch, brat," Jiraiya cackled, "now who taught you that, I wonder?"

"Ugh," Sakura rolled her eyes but gave into his offered fist bump. "You did, Jiraiya-shishou."

"That's right!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto tackled her in a tight hug while still jumping up and down, causing Sakura to jump with him. "You beat him up, dattebayo! Right smack into the earth! It was so awesome!"

"Hn." Sasuke looked at her with open bewilderment, as if he couldn't quite believe his eyes.

Sakura took it in stride.

So far, it was a very good day.


	16. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 16

**DISCLAIMER:** Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

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**WARNING: Heavy AU, possible OOC though by this point everybody's OOC. **

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**A/N**

Here I am, reminding you all once again that this is an AU so please just stop pointing out some things aren't accurate\don't match the manga or anime. I know. It's intentional. I'm starting to feel like a broken record. I don't mean to offend anyone but c'mon.

Thank you for following this story. Your comments and reviews are always welcome.

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**The Leaves of the Tree**

**16.**

If there was one thing that grated on Sakura's nerves without fail, it was when people rained on her parade. If she did it? Perfectly acceptable. If it happened to others? Meh, no biggie. But it was _Sakura's_ happy march that was ruined by somebody else? Nope. She couldn't stand it. At all.

A full blown invasion while Sakura was still riding out the high of having kicked a possible traitor through a wall was, without a doubt, a personal attack. At least, Inner Sakura believed so. Loudly, vocally and very graphically – using language that would've made Kakashi-sensei cry if he ever heard it coming out of Sakura's mouth.

As it were, Sakura was too busy to say anything. The moment she felt a strange chakra glide against her skin, she immediately slapped together a release hand sign and jammed her pathways into a full stop. Before her, Naruto crumpled to the ground in a dead feint, and Sasuke was struggling in the arena, on his knees and visibly dazed. Behind her, Kakashi-sensei's sharingan was spinning angrily and Jiraiya unleashed his horrible killing intent again, making Sakura acutely aware of the fact something was Very Wrong. Capital letters necessary, trademarked by Tenten who had an unusually sharp talent for sensing _when_ the metaphorical shit was about to hit the fan.

"Gaara's gone." Jiraiya said coldly and Sakura could _feel_ Kakashi-sensei stiffen.

"They want to let him loose." Kakashi-sensei growled.

"They don't know we've got one of our own." Jiraiya agreed. "Right. Sakura, get Naruto as close to the rampaging brat as you can."

"Naruto?" Sakura hissed and pointed a finger in the direction Gaara had run off, his body distorted and chakra positively _evil_. "You want me to let Naruto near that _thing_?"

"Not a thing." Jiraiya corrected. "Jinchuuriki."

Sakura paled when realisation struck and swayed on the spot. That word meant something personal to her, and all her close friends, now. It meant Naruto, Naruto's secret and his safety. The fresh understanding that Gaara was like Naruto, that Naruto could be like Gaara, was like a slap in the face.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei said seriously and his tone carried a warning in it. "We'll be talking about keeping secrets when this is over."

'Aw.' Inner Sakura mumbled shakily.

"Yes, sensei." Sakura agreed.

"Get Naruto to Gaara." Kakashi-sensei ordered. "You and Sasuke arrest his siblings, hmm?"

'And you?" Inner Sakura demanded frantically. 'What about you?!'

Sakura just blinked and did her best to relay the question without opening her mouth.

Jiraiya straight out laughed at her.

"Yo, pinkie," he sniggered, "who do you think we are? For us, this is a party, yeah?"

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan." Kakashi-sensei patted her head softly and Sakura nodded.

As the two legends born out of Konoha disappeared, Sakura grabbed Naruto by the arm and hauled him with her into the arena. She pushed chakra into Naruto's body as she went and tightened her hold, expecting him to wake up flailing. She wasn't wrong, either. As soon as their feet touched the sand by Sasuke, Naruto regained consciousness in a flurry of wild kicks. One of them connected with Sasuke's head and brought him out of his stupor – which worked just fine for Sakura, as she wouldn't need to wake him up now.

"Orders!" Sakura yelped, to draw the boys' attention and prevent an unnecessary fight. "Get Naruto to Gaara, apprehend Temari and Kankuro."

"Why Naruto?" Sasuke growled and Sakura couldn't quite believe that little spark on indignation in his eyes, that little feeling of… something. Something remotely like –

'Oh _fuck no_, Mistress Uchiha,' Inner Sakura growled, 'not on _my_ watch!'

Sakura was too stunned to intervene, and without the ability of presence of mind to stop herself, she was repeating Inner's rant verbatim at Sasuke, enforced by her own confusion over the situation, determination to keep Naruto and his secret safe, as well as sheer 'what-the-hell-are-you-pulling' type of irritation she usually reserved for Ino, only.

"Listen here, Princess," Sakura's mouth declared, though the words weren't her own. "Now is not the time for a pissing contest. There's a damned invasion going on, in case you didn't notice, and Konoha ain't prepared for it! Could you for once in your life just do as you're told?!"

Sasuke blinked at her and Sakura took advantage of his shocked silence to assume head-position and start running after Gaara. Naruto followed immediately, he was used to her exploding and storming off, and he dragged Sasuke along. They kept their formation tight with as little openings as possible. Gaara's trail of destruction was easy to follow, and Sakura noted with relief he was headed for the forests around Konoha's border – an area that should be almost entirely vacant at this time, due to the ongoing exams.

They passed some skirmishes on their way, but luckily nobody thought to interfere with them. Or rather, no one else showed an inclination of following Gaara. Sakura caught a glimpse of Tenten, standing back to back with a pale Neji, and pummeling a group of Suna chunin. Their teamwork was seamless – even though Sakura knew firsthand their personal relationship was shit. Even though Neji had just been thoroughly thrashed by Naruto and wasn't using his Byakugan, he showed remarkable proficiency with regular taijutsu and a kunai in each hand. Whatever openings he had, Tenten covered. A little to their left, Lee had taken off his weights and was wreaking havoc, a one man taijutsu army the invaders weren't ready to face. Sakura assumed Gai-sensei was responsible for the congregation of hostiles ahead, as every few seconds a defeated opponent would be thrown out of the skirmish. Sakura hadn't thought Gai-sensei to be particularly vicious, but as they passed his defeated opponents she noticed they were all, without exception, dead. Evidently, there would be no mercy shown to Konoha's enemies, not even from the likes of Gai-sensei.

"Man," Naruto whistled, "that's brutal, dattebayo."

"It's war." Sasuke snarked.

"Not yet," Sakura disagreed, "but depending on the outcome it could be."

"I can tell Kakashi-sensei's pretty pissed." Naruto said seriously and pointed to the northeast. "He's over there, alone."

"Alone?" Sakura almost squeaked. "That's where the gate is. Kakashi-sensei's defending it _alone_?"

"I think so." Naruto replied, "and the Great Pervert is by the Hokage Tower, along with Grandpa Third, and…"

When Naruto didn't continue, Sakura threw him a confused look over her shoulder.

"Who?" Sasuke demanded.

"Yellow-eyes." Naruto muttered.

Sakura's heart lurched and she immediately reached back, grabbed hold onto Sasuke's shirt and pulled him forward to run by her side. She didn't let him go – she just transferred her hand to his and gripped tightly, channelling just enough chakra into her palm to make her grip uncomfortably tight, like Jiraiya had taught her. The memory of those yellow-eyes emerged inside her mind once again, this time accompanied by the name of their owner and knowledge of who it was. It served to make her fear stronger, made it run deeper than her veins, allowed it to invade the marrow of her bones and shake her so profoundly it was a miracle she didn't throw up right then. Sakura dived straight into survival mode without hesitation.

"Don't even think about it!" Sakura hissed.

"He marked me!" Sasuke argued, infuriated.

"What do you think you can do?" Sakura snapped, too frightened to be tactful.

"I can –"

"Don't kid yourself." Sakura cut him off. "We need you with _us_, Sasuke. Over there you'll just be a nuisance."

"Damn, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, "what happened to you?"

"Fear. And I don't like our orders." Sakura admitted. "I don't like them at all."

"Tough." Sasuke snarked, "I see them ahead."

Sakura took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. They really were ahead – Gaara twisted into a deformed creature made out of pulsing yellowish-flesh, with sickly looking, protruding blue veins and blood-shot eyes; Temari and Kankuro were cowering amongst the branched of a tree, as far away as they dared from their sibling. It almost looked like Gaara was struggling for something, as he kept yelling and arguing, seemingly with himself, though e addressed this invisible, voiceless entity as 'mother'.

"Okay." Sakura said softly and briefly touched Naruto's arm. "Go. We got this."

"Yosh!" Naruto exclaimed and sped past them, hollering at the top of his lungs for Gaara to snap out of it.

"It should be me." Sasuke grumbled.

"It really shouldn't." Sakura countered. "It shouldn't be Naruto, either, but if Jiraiya says he can do it, then he can."

"The dead last, _right_."

"Naruto hasn't been _dead last_ in months." Sakura snapped and pushed a little more chakra into her feet. Naruto had zoomed past Temari and Kankuro, and his loud entrance into the fray snapped them out of their reverie. Temari reached for her fan, clearly intending to prevent Naruto from reaching Gaara, and Sakura would never let it happen. She launched herself forward with a burst of speed, pumped her fist to the limit and with an enigmatic 'shannaro' ringing in her head aimed for the gigantic fan.

Temari's eyes widened in surprise and she moved to slowly to counter. Sakura's fist punched through the metal encasing of Temari's fan and broke it cleanly in half. After delivering the successful attack, Sakura quickly dove out of Temari's immediate range of attack and prepared herself to defend against Kankuro – but Sasuke was already engaging him.

It was strange, to work in sync with Sasuke without Naruto between them. Come to think of it, this never happened before. Not once had Sakura and Sasuke worked together as a duo. Sakura worked with Naruto, with Kakashi-sensei, with the whole team or on her own. Never with just Sasuke. At first it was because her incessant fangirling distracted her and got on his nerves, then it was because Kakashi-sensei wanted to capitalise on Naruto's inclination to obey Sakura. Sakura didn't know why they'd never been put together until now, but she trusted Kakashi-sensei had his reasons. Still, his reasons better be extraordinary because Sakura and Sasuke worked together better than Sakura'd ever worked with anyone.

Better than even Naruto.

It was as if Sasuke was aware of every movement in Sakura's arsenal and could predict them ten steps ahead of her, even without using his sharingan – he had yet to activate it for some reason. Sakura could read Sasuke just as well. She was attuned to his chakra on a subconscious level, moving out of the way of his jutsu before he began the hand sign sequence, and covering his back without planning it.

She felt the hairs on the nape of her neck tingle when Sasuke went for a Chidori to annihilate Kankuro's puppets, and instinctively Sakura knew he was too distracted by Naruto's fight to ace it – so she leapt over, slapped a hand over his back and reigned his chakra in harshly. Too harshly, truth be told. Sakura was used to doing this for Naruto, who's chakra was not unlike a raging volcano compared to her own. It needed her to be uncompromising if she expected to help Naruto direct it. Sasuke's chakra wasn't like this, and though it obeyed Sakura's direction it did so jerkily. Like a frightened animal desperate to be left alone. In this moment Sakura felt the differences between their chakra's on a most intimate level.

Not just their contrasting natures: Sasuke's fire to her water, his lightening to Sakura's earth. It was more than that. Sakura's chakra was unyielding. It did as it was told, ruthlessly and without hesitation. Sakura governed it with an iron fist, a testament to her perfect control and domineering personality. Being soft and girly didn't come to Sakura naturally, she tended to trample on everybody in her way until she had what she wanted, discarding anything and anyone who weren't of interest. Sakura's chakra, like Sakura herself, was loyal, firm and determined.

Sasuke wasn't.

Sakura felt it in him for the first time. In the Forest of Death she was too frightened, too weak to really focus on Sasuke's chakra and read anything in it. She hadn't even thought about it. Now, Sakura was fuelled by adrenalin, invested in wrapping this up as quickly as she could so that she was free to go to Naruto. To protect him, to help him, to guard who she'd grown to see as a younger brother with all the ferocity of a mother bear. Naruto was hers. Sakura made him hers, claimed him as such and she wasn't ever letting go. She liked to keep her stuff and her people. The only one she ever released was Ino, and Sakura didn't like the experience. She wasn't ever repeating it. This desire drove her to do her best, and she could only do her best if she knew all the pieces on the board. She had to learn Sasuke better, and to do that meant to know his chakra, to hell with privacy.

Sasuke's chakra was _terrified_. It was in a constant state of battle for survival. It had no sense of loyalty, obedience or control. His chakra was adaptable, unrestrained and uncooperative. It recognized Sakura as an outsider and it cringed away from her, didn't want her assistance but was too surprised by the sudden intrusion to effectively reject Sakura's hold. More like, it wasn't used to encountering anything quite so determined. Sasuke's chakra was fearful, dark, uncompromising in its distrust of absolutely _everything_. Suddenly, Sakura was acutely aware of the fact Sasuke wasn't just an introverted, mysterious pretty boy. He was a loner because he repelled everything outside himself. No matter what, Sasuke wanted to be alone because solitude was safe.

He pushed Sakura away on as basic a level as his chakra.

Sakura quickly removed her hand from Sasuke's back, dodged a kunai from Temari and delivered an angry kick to the older girl's abdomen. It was entirely too overpowered for the situation, as Temari herself wasn't really aiming to kill. Her hits and strikes were half-hearted compared to the level she'd displayed in the arena. But Sakura was hurt, heartbroken and a little bit offended by what she'd just learned, so she struck out against a legitimate source. Hard, fast and unrepentant. It was in her nature.

"Are you guys insane?!" Kankuro yelled as Sasuke advanced, smashing the bits of destroyed puppets under his feet. "Can't you see we all have to get out of here?"

"We have orders." Sasuke said blandly, completely unimpressed.

"Orders?" Temari shrieked. "What orders could be worth standing in the way of a monster?!"

Monster.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched at that word and inside her, that little feeling of hurt was swallowed by indignation and justified anger.

'She called Gaara a monster.' Inner Sakura hissed. 'Her own brother!'

'Who's like Naruto.' Sakura growled right back.

'So basically –'

'She just called Naruto a monster.'

'Run her over!'

Sakura stomped her foot and the ground cracked under the hill of her shoe. Temari and Kankuro promptly shut up and stopped struggling. Sasuke, too, turned to gape at her. Suddenly all they could hear were Gaara's growls and pants, and Naruto's determined voice yelling at the crazed boy somewhere ahead of them.

"It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the feeling of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them!" Naruto yelled, and Sakura's heart swelled to a nearly unbearable level, where she felt as if it would burst soon.

She was one of these people, Naruto's precious people. She was privileged enough to be counted amongst them and to her Naruto was precious, too. Almost the most precious. A member of Sakura's self-made family. The younger brother she never had but honestly always wanted. Sakura's loudmouthed orange-clad menace, the second beloved blonde in her life, her ramen-crazed friend. Sakura's dearest, most loyal, truest friend.

"He's not a monster." Sakura said coldly. "He's a person. Did Gaara ask for this? Did he become this willingly? He didn't. Your face says so. And you – you've always treated him like a monster, didn't you? Didn't you?!"

Temari paled and began to shake her head slowly, whether in denial or condemnation, Sakura couldn't tell. She didn't care, either.

"That's why I'll never give up. I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me for who I am. They're my friends!" Naruto's words carried over towards them and emboldened Sakura at the same time as they brought tears to her eyes. She let them gather and she let them fall. Honestly, she felt like crying. Crying for the years she spent being mean to Naruto.

They were wasted years. Years during which she could've had this amazing humanoid sun in her life, and stupidly didn't.

"He's your brother!" Sakura hollered, and her voice caught on a sob. A guilty, painful sob. "Your baby brother! You should be the first person to protect him, to stand by his side! You should be his shield against outsiders and their poison! You should always have his back, always hold his hand and welcome him with open arms!"

"Shut up!" Temari yelled. "What do you know?!"

"Of course I know!" Sakura screeched, so loudly Naruto must've heard, because he wasn't speaking anymore. "Who do you think is fighting him? That's _my_ younger brother! Mine! And so help me, if yours hurts him, I'll never let you go! Never! This is on you! Its an older sister's job to love and cherish her younger brothers, to help raise them right! Does this _look_ right to you? Does Gaara being in so much pain, being so lonely and afraid seem right? He calls that _creature_ mother! You should've taught him what your mother was really like! How could you turn your back on him? _How could you_?!" Sakura abruptly fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands, unable to look at Temari's stricken face any longer. "Gods above, if this was Naruto, I'd kill myself for doing this to him."

"_Gaara_." Temari whispered and something thudded loudly against the earth. Kankuro yelped in surprise and Sakura abruptly looked up, just in time to see Sasuke toss Kankuro back down and Temari charge over towards the berserk Gaara.

"Temari!" Kankuro yelled, "don't be stupid, come back!"

"Gaara!" Temari threw herself past Naruto and locked her arms around Gaara's slender neck in an awkward position. Her torso leaned oddly, half reclining against Gaara's distorted torso as Temari buried her face in his neck and cried loud, broken sobs. "Gaara, I'm so sorry! She's right, that girl's right. I should've been braver. I should've ignored father and stood by you. Mother always told me to watch over Kankuro, to watch over _you_. And I didn't! I didn't. I never hated you, Gaara. I don't hate you, I can't. You're my baby brother, I was there when you were born, did you know that? You were so small. So tiny. You were born to soon, and we were so afraid you wouldn't make it. But you did, Gaara, you did!" Temari leaned back and pressed her forehead against Gaara's. Gaara had stopped moving, completely stupefied by the change of events. His one undeformed eye was wide with open shock. "Do you know why mother named you Gaara? It's not because you're a self serving demon, not at all. It means _self loving_. Mother _loved_ you."

Gaara snarled in denial then and began to struggle, but Temari just held him tighter.

_"I_ love you!"

* * *

It was strange, the power words and genuine feelings held over the most broken of shinobi.

Temari's desperate affection in tandem with Naruto's determination worked like magic. Gaara retreated, or, rather, the entity Kankuro called 'Shukaku' retreated back into Gaara and left behind the boy. Tired, confused and frightened, Gaara wrapped his arms tightly around Temari's shoulders as his sister hoisted him onto her back, and cried. Kankuro hurried over and openly conquered his fear to pat Gaara comfortingly on the back and murmur his own version of what Temari had said. The Sand trio made a strange picture as they stumbled their way after Team 7 towards where Kakashi-sensei's chakra signature was. They were a testament of what bad parenting and cruel people could do, while also displaying that even the deepest of wounds could begin to heal.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto asked shyly from his spot on Sakura's back. She'd nearly bitten his head off when he said he could walk, and glared at Sasuke as if he was committing a grave sin when he made to pick Naruto up instead of her. "D'you really feel like that?"

"Like what?" Sakura asked snappishly. She was still feeling agitated by the ordeal and had no problem showing it.

"Y'know," Naruto murmured. "Like I'm your brother."

"I don't just feel it." Sakura said determinedly. "You are my brother, Naruto." Then she hesitated and faltered in her steps. "Unless you don't want to be? Then it's fine. I'm not forcing you. I just think, well, I don't know –"

"Sakura-chan," Naruto wailed dramatically, and hugged Sakura's shoulders tighter. "I love you so much!"

"Ugh, Naruto! Don't get snot on me, ya pig!"

"Sakura-chan!"

In front of them, Sasuke's back seemed to hunch forward a little.


	17. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 17

**DISCLAIMER:** Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**WARNING: **Descriptions of gore, violence.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**17.**

Naruto remembered the first time he'd met Sakura-chan perfectly.

They were both five, each sitting in their own lonesome corner of the playground, and both were disliked by everybody else. While Sakura would curl into a ball and bawl her eyes out in the face of her bullies, Naruto beat them up and loudly declared he was going to become Hokage someday, so they'd better fix their attitudes. The day they'd officially met, Naruto packed up all his courage and stealthily approached Sakura to tell her she had amazing hair.

Five year old Sakura was terribly offended, convinced Naruto was making fun of her, and promptly started crying. Five year old Yamanaka Ino descended on the scene like a vulture, kicked Naruto very hard on the shin and dragged Sakura way. Naruto was left that day with the knowledge that girls were plain weird and the strong impression that when it came to Sakura-chan, he did something wrong. He didn't know what it was, but it was _something_.

Over their years in the academy and then after they were put on a genin team together, Naruto reaffirmed these things. With a few changes. Not all girls were weird, as Tenten was perfectly normal, but some were weirder than others – like Ino, who was plain crazy. Also, it wasn't that Naruto had done something wrong with Sakura-chan, it was that Naruto's whole approach to Sakura-chan had been wrong. He shouldn't have snuck up on her, flirted with her incessantly, pranked her or yelled in her ear. Sakura-chan hated that last one with a passion.

Nowadays Sakura-chan wasn't very likely to cry from any of those, though. She'd just bulldoze her way through the offending specimen with all the savagery of a prepubescent girl who had zero impulse-control, was a hundred percent geared towards rudeness, and no inclination to play nice. Luckily for Naruto, most of the time this was pointed towards anyone who was slow on the uptake of Konoha's most widely spread rumour: you mess with Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura descends on you like a fury out of hell. You try to put up a fight? Haruno Mebuki will find you and then you might as well prepare for your funeral.

So yeah, Naruto was living the life and loving it.

From his place of honor as Sakura-chan's best teammate, best blonde, and best buddy, Naruto considered himself to be a qualified Sakura-handler, and well deserving of the title. _Now_ he knew what to do and not to do.

"Just think of Sakura-chan as one of those old, sleepy bears, 'ttebayo." Naruto told Shikamaru very seriously before the whole mess with the chunin exams was even announced. "So long as she's calm, leave her alone. Don't go near her, don't look at her wrong and don't poke her."

"What if she isn't calm?" Choji asked curiously, as Shikamaru nursed his blackeye – courtesy of an infuriated Sakura who was being calmed down a safe distance away by Hinata.

"Don't move." Naruto said sagely. "When she's angry, Sakura's vision is based on movement. So long as ya hold still, some other moron's gonna take the fall for you."

"Yeah." Shikamaru hissed. "Like you did to me. Troublesome."

"Eh, it's a survivalist world." Tenten shrugged from her spot by the boys, and that was that.

As they stood by the make-shift infirmary designated for treating the lightly wounded, Naruto watched Kakashi-sensei make all the mistakes at the worst possible time.

First of all, Kakashi-sensei snuck up on them, which grated on Sakura-chan's already frayed nerves.

"Yo." Kakashi-sensei said, his tone significantly less enthusiastic than normal.

"Wah!" Sakura-chan had flinched with enough violence to smack Kankuro on the nose. They were still guarding the Suna-Three, as Naruto decided to dub them, and standing in close quarters together as, for some reason, it seemed to calm Gaara down.

Sasuke-teme leveled Kakashi-sensei with his patented stink eye and Naruto glared his own widely recognized look-of-suspicion at their grey-haired jonin instructor.

"What the hell, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto protested.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei! This is so not the time for sneaking up on people!" Sakura-chan complained in an angry hiss, much like a cat would.

"Mah," Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "It can't be helped."

Then he made mistake number two: he told Sakura-chan to calm down.

"Now, Sakura-chan." Kakashi-sensei began in a quiet and serious tone.

The three members of Team 7 immediately straightened and narrowed their eyes attentively. Kakashi-sensei only ever used this tone when they were either a- in big trouble, b- about to be in trouble, or c- landed someone _else_ in trouble. Neither option was particularly possible at the moment, which suddenly enabled an option d that hadn't existed before: Kakashi-sensei had bad news.

"I'd like to you please sit, take a deep breath and try to calm down."

"What?" Sakura-chan blinked. "But sensei, I _am_ calm. And I'm already sitting."

"Ah, yes, that you are."

Sakura-chan's eyebrow twitched in a very familiar warning sign. Had it been directed at him, Naruto would've run by now. Jiraiya-perv also would've sought out cover. Kakashi-sensei didn't do either, which made sense as Sakura-chan never tried to attack him before. Instead, he knelt down until he was eye-level with Sakura-chan and took one of her hands in his significantly larger ones.

'Strike three!' Naruto thought in alarm, 'physical contact initiated! Run for the hills!'

"You need to wait awhile before you can go home, Sakura-chan." Kakashi-sensei said with an uncharacteristic softness in his voice.

"Huh?" Sakura-chan blinked. "Wait, was the house destroyed? Are my parents okay?!"

"No, no, the house is fine. That's not the problem." Kakashi-sensei said hurriedly and that was all it really took for everyone to get it.

Sakura-chan's parents were the problem.

Sakura-chan was on her feet and running down the road in three seconds. She left her weapon pouch and hitai-ate behind, along with the pins she used to hold up her hair. She'd had to take them all off for the physical check up they'd undergone before Kakashi-sensei's arrival. Sakura's pink hair fell down to her hips in two messy, half undone braids. They swayed as she ran, left-right, side-to-side, and it was almost hypnotic. Almost enough to entrance the watcher.

Sakura-chan's parents were hurt.

Mebuki-obaa and Kizashi-oji. Sakura-chan's parents. Her dad, who'd had Naruto's little apartment all fixed up in record time after Sakura-chan complained about its state around half a year ago. Her mom, who made amazing ramen, and ramen-themed feasts, and introduced Naruto to five new styles of ramen from the capital. Her parents, who just _gave_ Naruto a key to their house two weeks ago and told him to come over more often. Who sent food over once a week for the last year because why ever not? Who were the nicest pair of civilians Naruto had ever met. The nicest pair of people.

Mebuki-obaa, who had the same green eyes as Sakura-chan, and Kizashi-oji, who had pinkish hair.

Naruto threw himself after Sakura-chan, running as fast as his body would allow. It felt like a long time, but in truth he'd reacted barely a second after she did – the fox-bastard told him so in a bored, uninterested tone. Oh, yeah, Naruto could talk to the kyubi in his belly. At least, Naruto thought he was in his belly, but the fox-bastard insisted it wasn't even possible. After Jiraiya-perv threw Naruto off that cliff, and Naruto summoned up Boss Gamabunta, he dreamt of the fox every night. Naruto spent the entire time since then having nightly arguments with the kyubi, hurling insults and just being as loud as he could be – all to draw out the fox-bastard's hurtful words, or just to plain annoy him. They didn't quite see eye-to-eye or get along, not that either of them tried. But today after the old orange furball helped Naruto beat up Neji out of his own volition, Naruto decided to be nice to him. Anyone who could cause that awesome an explosion just to prove a point was someone Naruto wanted on his friend list. And hey, kyubi was living in him rent-free, so he might as well fix the attitude.

'Focus, dumbass.' The kyubi drawled and Naruto narrowly avoided crashing into a collapsed pillar right ahead of him.

Running through a half-demolished Konoha was difficult. Most shinobi moved at such high speeds, even as simple genin, that they completely depended on muscle memory – especially when around their own village. A little bit to his left Naruto caught sight of Sasuke-teme pivoting sharply out of an old lady's way, and on his right Kakashi-sensei was running with them – not ahead of them. Naruto didn't know if it was a testament to Kakashi-sensei's levels of exhaustion or if the jonin was shaken by the destroyed scenery as much as his students.

'Exhaustion.' The fox supplied, entirely unhelpfully. 'That devil-eyed brat was faster than this when he was shorter than your midget ass.'

'You know Kaka-sensei?'

'No.'

'But you just said –'

'Focus, brat.' The fox growled, just as Naruto turned the corner, hopped over a caved in fissure and stepped foot onto Sakura-chan's street. 'I smell blood. Lots of it.'

Even Naruto could smell it, but from the outside everything was in perfect order. Most of the street was in pristine condition, as if the invasion hadn't concluded in expensively bought Konoha victory just an hour ago. Picket white fences, aesthetically trimmed bushes and intricate gates were the first things people saw when entering this particular middle-class neighborhood. This was the merchant district of Konoha, and though it wasn't the richest area, it was the home of the indisputably richest merchant family around.

Sakura-chan's family.

Sakura-chan's house was just as nice looking as it was when Naruto saw it last – that very morning. A two story house with a roof garden, a popular trend from Tea Country, and large windows. Two sakura trees somehow managed to grow themselves around each other, forming the gateway into the front yard. There was a miniature pond with lotus flowers floating about and several well groomed rose bushes in full bloom. Despite not being the biggest house on the street, or even inside the neighborhood, something about it was just… Naruto didn't quite have the words.

Only after Sakura-chan dragged him over for the first time did he finally realise she wasn't kidding when she said she was rich.

"Sakura lives here?" Sasuke-teme asked in surprise.

"Yeah?" Naruto blinked. "You didn't know?"

"How'd you know?" Sasuke demanded by way of answer.

"I have a key." Naruto said right back, and took immense pleasure in the sullen expression Sasuke adopted right after.

"Sakura isn't out here," Kakashi-sensei said tightly, "that's not good, she shouldn't –"

An explosively loud, shrill scream tore through the silence of the street. It continued on and on, unstopping, and only gained volume. Naruto had never heard Sakura-chan scream like that, had never wanted to hear it, but he had a feeling he'll never forget this sound. Nor the feelings of fear, worry and urgency it set lose inside him.

Evidently, he wasn't the only one affected, as Kakashi-sensei visibly found new wells of strength inside himself, because he stormed inside the house without hesitation. Naruto and Sasuke followed closely behind him and as soon as Naruto stepped in and past Kakashi-sensei, he wished he hadn't.

Sakura-chan stood in the middle of her living room. Her hands were up in her hair, grabbing at her scalp as she continued to wail, like some sort of creature sent solely to inform mere mortals that grief was upon them. The blood was everywhere. Literally all over the place, no surface left untouched. Some sprays looked accidental, like a vein being cut and letting loose on accident, but most of it? Oh no. No, it was very intentional.

Nobody went about disemboweling, dismembering and decapitating people, then spreading all their pieces in strategic locations around the main entrance to their abode, on accident.

By Sakura's feet was Kizashi-oji's head. His eyes were gouged out and hung from one of the ceiling lights above Sakura's head, along with some other bots of innards, and steadily dripped blood onto her hair. Mebuki-obaa's head was put on top of the fruit bowl, her blood filling it to the brim and covering the ripe apples inside grotesquely. Her green eyes, the same as Sakura-chan's, stared ahead unseeingly, her normally friendly and slightly mischievous expression twisted in horror and pain. Their brutalized torsos were each put in different corners, like some sort of sick attempt to mimic headless busts. This alone was enough of a sight to make Naruto feel more than a little queasy. But this wasn't the end of it, no.

Above Mebuki's head, in crude red letters drawn with blood, was a message.

'Best regards, bitch. -Dosu.'

This was meant for Sakura-chan. This was…

"I'm gonna hurl." Naruto said flatly.

"Not the time, dobe." Sasuke warned shakily, and Naruto noticed he looked a little green himself.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei had stepped forward and put himself directly in front of Sakura-chan, blocking her view. He grabbed hold of her arms and attempted to pry them off her head without harming the screeching girl in the process. "Sakura-chan, breathe. Please, just breathe."

Sakura-chan didn't breathe.

She screamed louder and struggled desperately, kicked out, scratched, punched and bit at Kakashi-sensei who just stood there and let her do it. He took the onslaught of violence without trying to defend himself, and leveled Naruto and Sasuke with a warning look when they'd moved forward to intervene. It didn't matter either way, as Sakura-chan's screaming effectively interrupted her oxygen supply and in a matter of minutes she couldn't keep up anymore. She swayed on her feet, pale and frail in a way Naruto had never, ever seen her, before falling backwards in a faint. She would've hit the bloodied ground had Sasuke not thrown himself forward and caught her, moving before Kakashi-sensei could. Naruto wasn't even thinking about it. He was still attempting to process what all of this meant, what had happened.

The fact his Sakura-chan, his sister, just lost her family.

That he lost his kind of family.

That this was _personal_.

"Hospital." Sasuke ground out through clenched teeth. "Sakura needs help."

"Go." Kakashi-sensei ordered and just like that Sasuke was out the door, running faster than Naruto had ever seen him do before. He couldn't find it in himself to follow. "Naruto. You're going into shock." Kakashi-sensei told him seriously.

"Yeah."

"I'm going to pick you up now and take you to the hospital."

"Okay."

Kakashi-sensei seemed to nod, but Naruto couldn't be sure. He wasn't capable of looking away from Mebuki-obaa's eyes. So green, so pretty, so much like Sakura-chan's. Empty, unseeing, wide with fear.

* * *

It's three hours later, when Naruto's staring at Sakura-chan's unconscious form, dwarfed by the hospital bed, that he slowly regains the ability to think. Team 7's refused to leave Sakura-chan's side, and no doctor had the time to argue with them, not in the aftermath of the invasion and the Sandaime's death.

'So much death.' Naruto thought stoically. 'So much needless death.'

'It's what you humans do.' The fox informed him cruelly and Naruto didn't have it in him to argue this time.

None of Sakura-chan's and his friends were allowed inside. Ino had tried to barge in, but one furious look from Kakashi-sensei stopped that attempt and any others. Now Kakashi-sensei just sat by the window, nose buried in his familiar Icha Icha book, but quite obviously not reading. The only one moving about was Sasuke.

He almost seemed to be prowling around Sakura-chan's bed, as if he'd mapped out a perimeter in his head and was now guarding it jealously. After every round he'd stop, stare at Sakura-chan for a moment and then continue. When Sakura-chan moved, Sasuke immediately stopped his rounds to fix her blankets and tuck her in again, before resuming his strange patrol. It was the oddest thing Naruto had ever seen.

'Nothing odd about it.' The fox snorted.

'Yeah? Explain it to me.'

'The little Uchiha spawn's in love with her.' The fox deadpanned.

Naruto's brain short-circuited. He briefly glanced to his weapon pouch and debated murdering Sasuke-teme right there – because how dare he? Sakura-chan was way to good for his brooding ass, and he was mean to her like, all the time! All the time! – but the fox continued in the same uninterested drawl, and his words stopped Naruto from moving.

'Wonder how it'll kill him.'

'_What_?!'

But the fox wouldn't speak again.


	18. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 18

**DISCLAIMER:** Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**A/N**

I find myself once again repeating myself, but this time with regards to a different subject – obvious plot holes, mistakes, inconsistencies, etc. In reply to Ghost, a guest reviewer, who took the time to express their feelings I figured I'll address their valid points right here, and hopefully settle this matter.

Yes, Dosu canonically has no reason to give two fucks about his decimated team. Yes, he fought Gaara and died before the invasion in the manga and anime. Here, both are different. No, I've not explained why and yes, I know it came out of nowhere, I did it intentionally. This is a point that will be addressed further in the story. The same is for why Kakashi did so badly in breaking the news to Sakura.

I remember mentioning this before, but I'm not sure in which A/N or on which story, so here it is: if there's an obvious plot hole it's intentional. Please trust me when I say that I am not a lazy sort of author. I plan my stories ahead before I write and post them. I wouldn't miss something this big, and I'd like to think I won't miss something really small either. I'm too anal-retentive about these sorts of things.

On a different note, it's important to me to try and keep my works as realistic as can be, considering the genre. In life there are moments where the shit hits the fan so unexpectedly and without cause, that it shatters us. And sometimes, those who need to keep us safe muck up, too. People who lead violent lives, even when in service of their country, never come out of it unscathed. There are always psychological consequences, and Kakashi for example has a ridiculously sad and tragic life: dead mother as a child, father committed suicide and left son to find his body, teammate dead, another teammate killed by his own hands, teacher dead… this sort of man cannot process death and grief the same way a fourteen year old girl, who'd grown up sheltered and spoiled in a very rich household (yes, I'm sticking to this. Sue me, haters) would.

As it were, thank you Ghost for taking the time to write such a long comment. It means this issue really bothered you, and I hope I've explained myself to your satisfaction.

To the rest of you, thank you for sticking with this story, and thank you for your reviews. Keep 'em coming, I always read them all and they give me a lot of motivation.

Stay safe and happy in these strange times.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**18.**

Grief is a universal thing, but it is also a deeply personal experience. Each person reacts to it differently even if some forms are more common than others. There's crying, of course, and repeatedly talking about or mentioning the people lost. Excessive celebration, laughter and self obsession are also typical reactions, even if they might make absolutely no sense. Anger, hatred, regret, pain – these are perfectly expected and reasonable emotions to feel when dealing with the loss of a loved one, when experiencing grief.

Sakura had always been a regular person with normative, textbook reactions to any situation.

Her reaction to her parents murder? Shock. Then guilt. All consuming, all encompassing, guilt. It swallowed her whole into a deep dark pit of bubbling acid, it put Sakura in a suffocating bubble out of which there was no escape. Or, maybe, there was a path back outside, back to the world of the living and the innocent, but Sakura couldn't find it. She didn't look for it. Didn't want it.

Didn't deserve it.

Sakura felt that she was a murderer. That she was the one who cause her parents' death. It was every decision she'd made in the past eight years that led her here, to this time. She joined the Ninja Academy, passed her exams, became a part of Team 7 – all against her parents' wishes, though they accepted her choices eventually. Sakura put her back into her training after that one mission to Wave, made herself useful, qualified for the Chunin Exams – achievements she was foolishly proud of. She turned herself into a shinobi, driven by instinct and orders and smooth movements, and she _chose_ to fight instead of hiding. She could've hidden, in the Forest of Death. She could've erected such an intricate genjutsu web that only a sharingan would've been able to break through. Kakashi-sensei taught her how to do it. Instead she hid her much stronger teammates and chose to fight on her own. That was another mistake, but not the fatal one, no.

Sakura's biggest mistake was killing that girl whose name she didn't even know. She could've aimed to a pressure point, any pressure point really, and rendered the opponent immobile – but alive. Sakura chose to kill her. She made the decision to take no prisoners, without really knowing why or stopping to think about it. Something in her just couldn't stomach the thought of a threat to her precious people being able to rise again. So Sakura killed the girl, fought the boy and lost. But she held him back long enough for Sasuke to wake up and then she made her second mistake: she pointed her finger, laid the blame and fainted. Sakura knew what Sasuke was capable of at the best of times, and even in her tired state she could tell he wasn't _all there_. She still set him loose, though.

Because a dead enemy is an enemy that won't be coming back to haunt her.

Only, Sakura forgot all genin teams came in sets of _three_. That was her third and final mistake.

* * *

"I say we break the door." That was Ino, and by the growl in her voice Sakura could tell she was angry. She could even imagine the exact way Ino scowled as she spoke, and put her hands on her hips all business like.

"Troublesome. You can't just barge in." Shikamaru, his tone as long-suffering as ever, but his voice tired.

"Why the hell not? She's been in there for three days!" That was Tenten, and if Ino sounded angry then Tenten was all levels of frantic, to the point her eyebrow must have been twitching _just so_.

"Sakura-chan! Just say something to us!" Naruto. Her precious and loud Naruto, sounded closer to panic than Sakura has ever heard him before.

Her friends were the most wonderful caring people. They'd been out there, guarding Sakura's hospital room, for three days now. They even developed a sort of timetable and shifts formation, so that there was always someone there, in case Sakura needed anything. In case she came out. In case of _whatever_.

Naruto was there all the time, and Sakura could feel Kakashi-sensei's chakra signature constantly on the roof, too. She even felt Sasuke walking circles around the hospital, but he never came in.

They were all so amazing. She loved them, so much her heart squeezed whenever she thought of them. Sakura loved them with all of her being.

"Go away." She muttered into her pillow, and knew her voice didn't carry to the door.

She didn't deserve them.

It was day five after her parents died because of her and Sakura was trying to see of she could just sleep until she dies too, when there was an uncharacteristically firm knock on door and then someone _walked in_. Without warning or any sort of introduction.

Sakura abruptly sat up, determined to give the intruder a piece of her mind and an order to fuck the hell off, but her anger got stuck on its way out, clogged her throat like something sharp and probably deadly, because suddenly Sakura felt like she couldn't breathe.

A pair of green eyes, exactly like her own, looked at her from an angular face with all the softness of a parent, along with a grief Sakura knew had to be as strong as her own. Shiny blonde hair fell in a fuzzy fountain to the man's thin hips, longer than Sakura remembered and not exactly as blonde as her mother's had been. The man wore a luxurious kimono and overcoat, even in the warm weather of Konoha, and had an intricate ivory pipe tucked into his belt, along with a plump velvet purse dangling from it freely. As if he was unbothered by the prospect of being robbed.

Then again, only a complete idiot would try to steal from Haruno Masarume.

"Little cherry." Sakura's uncle said in his gentle voice and hurriedly walked towards her bed, much like a frantic mother-hen, where he cradled her face in his soft hands and peered at her worriedly. "You're so pale, it's unhealthy."

"Uncle." Sakura mumbled, and from the corner of her eye she caught sight of her team, hovering by the door, for the first time since… well. Since she'd fainted.

Naruto didn't look like he'd slept at all since then, was probably as pale as herself and eyed up Sakura's uncle like he was some sort of miracle worker. Behind Naruto, keeping a firm hand on the blonde's shoulder, was Kakashi-sensei, as stoic as ever though he was watching Sakura intently, as if he worried she might do something stupid. Sasuke was right behind Kakashi-sensei, and he was _staring_ at her, which was making Sakura even more uncomfortable.

"You need to go outside, darling," Sakura's uncle told her in an uncompromising manner she was deeply familiar with, as her mother had been the same. Only Sakura's uncle was much gentler than her mother at her nicest moment. "Some sun and the fresh ait would do you good, hmm?"

"I don't want to."

"I didn't ask if you wanted to, I said you should." Her uncle huffed and sat on her bed as ungracefully as a child would, an action that completely contradicted his dignified appearance. "Oi, you three frightened boys, either come in or close the door. This isn't a sitcom."

Inner Sakura managed a snort and Sakura's mouth twitched into a small smile.

Her uncle really just did and said whatever came to his mind, didn't he? Just like her mother.

Team 7 immediately shuffled in and closed the door behind them. Naruto made a beeline for Sakura, wiggled into her bed from her free side and buried his face into her side wordlessly. Sakura felt a stab of guilt at not letting him in sooner, and dutifully sunk her fingers into his hair in the way she learned he liked, determined to at least make Naruto feel better. He had to always be happy, Sakura promised herself that ages ago. Kakashi-sensei went for the windowsill, where he casually opened his porn book and pretended to read. Sasuke leaned back on the door, still stared at Sakura, but obviously kept watch on her strange uncle, too.

"Alright, then." Her uncle tapped his fingers on his knees and sighed. "Let's discuss what we need to."

"Yes, uncle."

"You're not a parrot, little cherry." Her uncle said, "stop repeating yourself."

Sakura blinked at him uncomprehendingly and the man – younger than her mother by ten years, still childless and responsible for an entire clan of stuck-up elitists – rolled his eyes.

"The funeral has already been arranged." He said, "to of your friends handled it, I believe their names are Ino and Hinata, yes?"

"Yeah." Naruto said quietly.

Sakura's heart swelled again with appreciation for her precious friends and she felt tears well up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

"It will be held tomorrow, and you will attend." Her uncle levelled her with a flat look. "There will be no more of this hiding you've been doing."

"I can't go." Sakura said immediately.

"Excuse me?" her uncle demanded, "you've got a pair of working legs, don't you? And even if you didn't, I'm sure one of your teammates could carry you. Or I can arrange for transport."

"I _won't_ go."

Silence reigned for approximately two whole minutes, before Sakura's uncle's surprised expression wilted into a furious scowl – something Sakura had never seen on him, and which changed his face completely. He didn't resemble her mother anymore. He wasn't all soft and gentle now, either. Now, he was the Head of the Haruno Clan, and Sakura – currently the only direct heir – had pissed him off.

'We're so screwed.' Inner Sakura wailed, but without much heart in it.

"Repeat that for me." Her uncle demanded.

"I won't go." Sakura repeated.

"Aren't you smart, Sakura?" her uncle asked sharply. "Why are you making such an obvious mistake?"

"What mistake, uncle?"

"Irritating me." He narrowed his eyes and Sakura immediately lowered hers in defeat. She couldn't fight anyone at the moment, least of all her uncle who loved her as if she was his own daughter. "Why wouldn't you come to your own parents' funeral, hmm? Is this a shinobi custom I'm not aware of?"

"No." Sakura cleared her throat awkwardly. "No, I just… I can't go, uncle. Please."

"Why ever not?"

He was really going to make her talk about it. Out loud. In front of her teammates, with her friends eavesdropping at the door – oh yes, Sakura could distinctly feel Ino, Shikamaru and Tenten right outside. Hinata and Chouji had the decency to walk down the hall the moment Kakashi-sensei had shut the door.

"It's my fault they're dead." Sakura said quietly.

"Speak up, honey." Her uncle said, a little impatiently.

"It's my fault they're dead!" Sakura yelled and then covered her mouth with her hands, felt the blush rising in her cheeks and stared at her uncle with wide, terrified eyes. She'd just shouted at him. Her mother would've smacked her for it and then grounded her for at least a week.

"Ah, I see." Her uncle smiled brightly and nodded his head at Kakashi-sensei. "You've guessed right, Hatake-san. It seems you know my niece better than I do."

"Not at all Your Highness." Kakashi-sensei inclined his head deferentially, and Sakura almost giggled at the openly stunned expression on Sasuke's face, and Naruto's surprised gasp.

"No need for that," Sakura's uncle waved his hands around, as if he were batting at invisible bugs. "My mother is of the court, but I happily left that particular mess behind. Unless, of course, my darling niece takes a liking to one of them titled brats." He gave Sakura a playful wink and she really did giggle this time. "You can have anyone you want sweetie, just please make sure he's got at least some brains in his head, hmm? Wouldn't want him to forget his place in your marriage, heaven forbids."

"Uncle," Sakura squeaked, "I'm fourteen!"

"And? Your mother met your father at fourteen." He said snootily.

"Maybe you should get married yourself." Sakura suggested with her nose up in the air. "_You're_ twenty four."

"Nah." Her uncle drawled and then his expression turned serious once more. He leveled Sakura with an honest look and took one of her hands in his. "Listen to me, little cherry. I may be young and inexperienced, especially compared to other people in this room and village, but I know a thing or two about burying loved ones. When your grandparents died, I was only twelve – and I inherited the clan, the businesses and the name. I also got a lot of guilt."

"Why?" Sakura asked curiously.

"They were poisoned because of me." Her uncle said softly. "Someone sent a poisoned present for my birthday, and they opened it first."

"That's coincidence!" Sakura protested.

"How is it different from my sister's death?" her uncle raised an eyebrow. "I've been… debriefed, you could say, by your villages current leadership. I understand that it was an act of vengeance, but think on it a little. Konoha was invaded. It's only by sheer luck that the culprit found them at your house at all – they were about to evacuate along with their neighbors."

"I should've known someone will come for revenge." Sakura said stubbornly. "If it was my team I would've."

"So what would you have done differently?" her uncle asked. "Never become a shinobi? Avoided deadly conflicts?"

"No." Sakura frowned. "No, I love being a shinobi, and I'm not afraid of fights."

"Then you can only learn your lessons and plan better in the future." Her uncle said with a rueful smile.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked softly, and Sakura's uncle looked down at his blonde head.

The two blondes eyes each other for a moment and then Sakura's uncle moved one of his hands to rake through Naruto's hair, the other still holding onto Sakura's own.

"Well, should Sakura choose to remain a shinobi she could either avoid such situations in the future or, more practically and true to our family's inclinations," here his eyes gleamed dangerously, and his smile sharpened, "annihilate the threat completely."

"Family inclinations?" Sasuke asked.

"Choose to stay a shinobi?" Sakura asked at the same time.

"The Haruno Clan didn't come to be at the peak of Fire Country's economic pyramid by playing nice with the myriads of other clans out there." Her uncle said with a shrug. "Business is not much different than a battlefield, and money is just as deadly as a sharp blade."

"Uncle," Sakura sat a little straighter and tightened her hold on her uncle's hand. "What do you mean if I choose to stay a shinobi?"

"Oh." Her uncle blinked. "Well, you are the heir to our clan, Sakura. I don't have children of my own and frankly, I'd like to keep it that way. You have the choice to come back to the capital with me after the funeral. You can learn what needs to be learned and when you're ready and willing, you'll inherit everything. Whoever you marry will have the absolute honor of taking our name and assisting you in your job, much like your father did for my sister."

"What!" Naruto yelped and promptly sat up. He wrapped both of his arms around Sakura's shoulders and pulled her close tightly. "No way! Sakura-chan ain't leaving Konoha, dattebayo!"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted from his spot, and the sharingan spun to life in his black eyes.

Kakashi-sensei closed his book with a soft 'paw' and narrowed his one eye in warning.

"And if I don't go?" Sakura asked hesitantly. "Will you disinherit me?"

"What?" her uncle yelped. "Never! You're my precious niece, whom I love as if you were my own child!"

"So," Sakura bit her lip. "So, I can stay in Konoha? And be a shinobi? And you won't be angry?"

"Angry?" her uncle looked offended. "I will never be angry with you for making your own choices and paving your own way. Disappointed? Sure. If you remain here, our visits will stay rare. I won't get to see you grow up, or to threaten any snooty boys who come calling on my pretty flower –"

"Uncle!"

"What?" he protested. "I never could do it with your mother. I was all of eight when she got married, not very threatening."

"Oh my god." Sakura snorted and shook her head fondly. Her uncle could always make her happy, make her laugh, no matter what. Next to her, Naruto snickered at the presented image, too, and even Sasuke looked a little bit amused.

"Either way, if you stay here, you'll still be my heir." Her uncle ruffled Sakura's hair and wiggled his eyebrows playfully. "You'll rise up the ranks of shinobi and do your duty to Konoha. When you retire, if you're still young enough to learn and willing, you may still come to the capital and take your place in the clan. Regardless, you'll always have access to our resources."

"Oh, uncle," Sakura climbed over her blanket and into her uncle's lap, where she proceeded to hug him tightly. "Thank you."

"What for, little cherry?" the man asked cheerfully and hugged her back, but Sakura knew he understood – she could smell the saline of his tears and felt them fall on her shoulder.

Sakura chose Konoha.

They both knew she'll never rejoin the clan again.

* * *

The funeral was quiet, private and modest – exactly the opposite of what Sakura's mother would've wanted, but just right for her father. Sakura felt it was fair that Kizashi got his way, even if it only happened once he was dead.

Sakura's uncle remained in Konoha for the next week, during which he hired competent carpenters to fix up Sakura's childhood home, put that large house up for renting and bought Sakura a two-bedroom apartment at a freshly constructed civilian neighborhood that bordered on the long empty Senju clan compound.

"The rent will go to your account." Her uncle had told Sakura on the day of his departure. "It's your house. It'll be your allowance. Do with it as you wish."

"Thank you, uncle." Sakura said, immensely grateful for how much he was doing for her, the niece who was breaking his heart.

"Keep in touch, at least once a month, just like before." Her uncle ordered, "and I expect you for the ancestral festival each summer, hmm?"

"Yes, uncle." Sakura nodded dutifully.

"Bring that Naruto boy." He suggested. "He's a whole hoot!"

"I will, uncle."

The Haruno clan head embarked on his long journey back home, leaving behind his only niece who was still grieving, still felt guilty, but now remembered she still had quite a lot to live for.

'We're setting him up on dates, aren't we?" Inner Sakura asked.

'Damn straight.' Sakura turned around and marched towards her new, still unfurnished, apartment. 'He's got way too much time on his hands.'

'Let's make mother proud!'


	19. The Leaves of the Tree - Chapter 19

**DISCLAIMER:** Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**A/N**

I have returned! Not that I've been away, I just put this work aside for awhile. I found the last few chapters and themes a bit too hard to cope with, but now I've got my head on straight and I'll start uploading more chapters again. Still, my priority is to finish at least one of my other Naruto stories before I return to the Trees seriously, so please bear with me.

I hope I've not made you wait too long, and that you've not given up on this piece!

As always, your reviews are very welcome.

* * *

**The Leaves of the Tree**

**19.**

It's strange, how one decision can change the course of a person's life faster than years of dedication.

After the mission to Wave, Sakura's life turned on their head and abruptly changed direction, much like a stream affected by a violent earthquake. Her discovery of Uzumaki Kushina mostly affected Naruto's path but Sakura's little stream couldn't remain unaffected and inevitably shifted once again, following the footsteps of its river, her river, Naruto. Jiraiya's tutelage planted a seed of something in both Sakura and Naruto, but while Naruto had been ready for it – demanded it and tended to that tiny seed with all he had – Sakura didn't really understand what she was supposed to do with it. She hadn't yet chosen a definitive direction, you see. She was still a stream, just flowing along and doing whatever, no goal in sight.

When Sakura's parents died, her stream dried up.

After her uncle's visit, the funeral and the revealing of the graves… it was like somewhere within her a dam erupted in a fantastic display and to her surprise she found that she wasn't a river at all. Sakura was an ocean, swirling and gushing, deep and boundless, _dangerous_. Her currents were wild, her whirlpools powerful, and within her lived an entire universe that depended on her protection. Sakura wrapped herself around this universe, around the precious people she had left, and she swore to protect it and them, and never, ever, fail again. The seed Jiraiya had left in her care finally sunk into the marrow of her bones, took root and began to grow.

Sakura decided she wanted to protect.

Not to be useful in battle, not to support from the back and not to be seen as an _equal_ to anybody. Her worth will be decided by the safety of those she loved, not by acknowledgement from people. Sakura carved this decision into her very soul and abruptly found not only a new path to walk on, but her very own nindo: I'll be the shield that protects those that I love, without fail. She didn't want to heal their wounds, she wanted to prevent them from being wounded in the first place. Sakura refused to go out and make enemies when said enemies would only come after those she held dear for vengeance. Though she had the anger for it in her, Sakura dug her heels and flat out rejected the path of the offensive warrior. She will not go to the front lines. She'll not wield any weapon openly in anybody's name. Sakura wanted to stay behind, wrap her arms around Konoha's perimeter and make it so that no hostile _anything_ could ever breach its walls.

And so… Fuinjutsu.

* * *

"No, no, Sakura-chan! You have to do it like – fyuu – not like bam!" Naruto insisted loudly, stomping his feet onto the dusty packed earth and waving his arms around.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched and she buckled down even harder, pulling on her chakra tightly like one would the leash of a rabid dog, attempting to force it to obey – though she didn't really know what her own order was.

"Fyuu! Make it fyuu!"

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, jumped to her feet and bashed the scroll she preciously focused on over his head. "Just shut up! What the fuck is even 'fyuu'? That's not a word, moron!"

"Hn," Sasuke supplied dryly from the sidelines, where he was polishing his weapon pouch. He'd been doing it for the past two hours, and holding the _same_ _kunai_ for thirty minutes. It was the most inefficient thing Sakura had ever seen him do, and quite obviously a charade. Sasuke was observing her, for whatever reason. It grated on her nerves worse than an angry Ino on a warpath.

"Sasuke," Sakura said through her teeth and the boy abruptly looked up, surprised at her tone. "Either be helpful or zip it!"

"Yeah teme, shut your trap!" Naruto cheered.

Sasuke swiped across his kunai deliberately once more, his black eyes narrowed in annoyance and then stood up.

"Show me," He grumbled, and Naruto only handed him the scroll after Sakura raised her foot threateningly. Sasuke observed it for a long moment and then, like a dirty shameless cheat, activated his sharingan.

Naruto scoffed and dragged his feet away, choosing to throw some kunai at a crooked target rather than watch Sasuke show off his eyes. Again.

Sakura began to tap her foot impatiently, not at all reverent of the special ability. It sort of lost its awe-inspiring quality, when she saw it every fucking day, used for the littlest thing. Alright, there was no 'sort of about it'. Whatever intimidation and respect Sakura initially possessed towards the Sharingan has been long tossed into the nearest bin and set aflame. The ashes were then trampled by a herd of Naruto-shaped clones and Kakashi-sensei's excited pack of ninken, one of which – probably Pakkun – chose that exact spot to pee in. Yes, Sakura was quite fed up with the damn dojutsu.

It was as if once Sasuke developed his clan's kekkei genkai he couldn't preform the simplest of tasks without it, like he regressed into a weak little toddler when his eyes were just _regular_ eyes. It was annoying to the point what little of Sakura's infatuation for him remained bled out of her faster than Jiraiya's blood did south at the sight of a topless woman. She just really _couldn't_ anymore, not even a little bit. Sakura wondered if every bloodline affected shinobi like this, and then decided it couldn't be. _Hinata_ didn't go flaunting her byakugan like it was some custom-made accessory, even though her dojutsu was just as awesome as Sasuke's – and more useful, in Sakura's humble opinion.

Then again, if Hinata ever did it'll be cute. Because Hinata was a heaven-sent saint and nothing she did would ever be annoying. Ever.

But Sakura digressed.

"Well?" she demanded.

"It's a third-rate sealing technique, capable of sealing living things and keeping them unharmed for a period of up to twenty four hours," Sasuke reported blankly.

"I know," Sakura snapped, irritated. "I can't get it to work."

"Just… go 'fyuu'," Sasuke said, a little helplessly, and gave Sakura what could've passed for an apologetic look if there wasn't so much consternation in it.

'I'm going to dig his eyes out,' Inner Sakura informed her dryly. 'Then shove him up his –'

"Ugh!" Sakura threw her arms up in exasperation. "Whatever! I'm gonna find that geriatric pervert! Naruto, just order whatever for dinner!"

"Yes ma'am, onee-chan!" Naruto saluted and made a face at Sasuke, "ya wanna join, teme? Or are you gonna sulk all alone?"

"Aa," Sasuke said grumpily, and it surprised absolutely no one.

Team 7 stuck together like glue, lately. They had all three meals together, walked to and from training together, and – well, Naruto commandeered Sakura's couch for himself, so technically half of them _lived_ together. It would've been a very good thing if there wasn't a certain heaviness to it all. As if a hidden blade were hanging over their heads, waiting for the opportunity to descend and separate their bonds as swiftly and suddenly as they'd began to form.

Naruto was louder than usual, almost as if he were trying to make up for a silence only he could hear. He ran around on a wild pranking spree the likes of which Konoha had never seen before, nor would it ever see again, Sakura didn't think. Naruto gorged himself on ramen and then went on death-defying training binges that gave even Lee pause, all the while cheering at the top of his lungs that he was going to make chunin by next year – just you watch! He hadn't mentioned becoming a Hokage once, not even in passing, since the funeral of Sakura's parents.

Kakashi-sensei was as blank as before, but his movements became more sluggish, his air a lot more tired. He hid behind his bright-orange porn book a lot more often nowadays, and became an even more temporally impaired. Sakura strongly suspected he stopped sleeping, at least for awhile. Nor did he really eat: Gai-sensei started showing up sporadically and violently challenging Kakashi-sensei for eating competitions, which was as great a tell as any. Sometimes Sakura would catch him staring at her, his eyes glazed over and distant, or at Naruto – then his gaze would be barren, like a broken battlefield – and occasionally at Sasuke, at which point he'd look like he was seeing a ghost.

Sakura was more impatient, more snappish than ever before, and she didn't care _who_ the target of it was. Only Ino and Hinata were exempt – Ino because she'd hit her for it, and Hinata because, well, _Hinata_. Inner Sakura hardly ever spoke to her nowadays, but Sakura wasn't surprised by it. They were either in total agreement or Sakura forcefully shut her counterpart up with single-minded ferocity. She will never be distracted from her goals again, she couldn't afford to, not even by herself.

Sasuke was twitchy and on edge. Always on guard and openly hostile to everything and everyone. Only Team 7 got a semblance of leniency in his treatment of them, but then again he'd loudly and coldly told Naruto to _fuck off_ just that morning, earning three hundred push-ups from Kakashi-sensei and a horrified look from Sakura. Sasuke was never quite that rude or forward before. Naruto, of course, just cackled maniacally and told Sasuke where he could shove it. He got to do four hundred push-ups, with Pakkun sitting on his back and smacking at his head as punishment. So maybe… yeah, okay, only Sakura was exempt.

Team 7 felt as if they were living on borrowed time, but where they got it and for what purpose remained a mystery.

* * *

Sakura found Jiraiya exactly where she always found him – peeping on women at the bathhouse. It neither surprised nor annoyed her anymore, mostly because Sakura figured it was just Jiraiya's way of coping with… well, with the shitty life of shinobi. If harassing women was his way of not going completely mad and committing suicide, who was _she_ to judge? Besides, Jiraiya never touched, never forced himself on anybody – that Sakura knew off. He peeped, made perverted comments, cat called and ogled – but he never actually invaded anybody's personal space. He also took it when the women decided to beat him up for his ways, even though he could easily smack them aside and carry on with his day. But just because Sakura sort of understood, it didn't mean she was going to _ignore_ it.

"Aiya!" Sakura screeched in as nasal a tone as she could produce. "Hentai! Invasion of privacy! Disgusting!"

"Not again!" some woman from the baths yelled.

"Hurry! Everybody inside!" another called.

"I'm gonna tell Anko-san!" a third swore.

"Party pooper," Jiraiya told Sakura, entirely unimpressed. "What d'ya want?"

"Teach me this stupid thing," Sakura threw the scroll at him and sat down expectantly.

"Figure it out yourself."

"Teach me," Sakura insisted, "or I'll tell Kurenai-sensei you stole her panties."

"Where would I get those from, exactly?"

"Does it matter?" Sakura asked innocently.

"I don't like you," Jiraiya told her flatly. "But you've got yourself a deal. Now, pay attention."

When Sakura made her way to her new apartment, not her new home – she wasn't used to it, hadn't dreamt of it, couldn't really sleep there very well, not yet – she was exhausted but immensely pleased with herself. After one explanation from Jiraiya, she'd managed the sealing jutsu well enough to get a passing grade from any teacher on any test, but just a pass wasn't enough for either Sakura _or_ Jiraiya. He made her repeat it again and again, over ten times in a row, and when he was still displeased Jiraiya set her to running laps around the bathhouse while holding a rock above her head. It served a double purpose: the respite gave Sakura's chakra time to recharge and the exercise made her look completely ridiculous. After her arsenal was sufficiently filled up, Jiraiya watched her resume practice and the cycle continued till the sun set over Konoha, and the first starts twinkled into visibility above them. By that point Sakura preformed the jutsu perfectly without needing to call out its name, but _Jiraiya_ wanted her to manage it without the full sequence of hand-signs, and _that_ was a difficult process.

It was always this way with Jiraiya. He was demanding and overbearing, uncompromising in his methods even when he seemed incompetent. He would've _never_ asked Naruto to master a jutsu so completely – with the vast amounts of chakra circulating through Naruto's body, his own and the kyubi's, Naruto will never manage it. He just had too much chakra to allow for any sort of shortcut. So from Naruto, Jiraiya expected strong results, quickly and without fail. If Naruto wasn't as efficient, as quick or as powerful as Jiraiya thought he should be, the Toad Sage made a point of scratching his ear, rolling his eyes and loudly proclaiming something about how 'darling Kushina' was definitely 'rolling in her grave' or 'covering her face'. Any comment of the sort made Naruto so angry he worked ten times as hard and completely exceeded any goals set before him – which was the whole point.

With Sakura, Jiraiya couldn't achieve these sorts of results. She didn't have so much chakra available, though her own reserves did grow to be impressive enough for a civilian born girl. With Sakura, Jiraiya could have _control_. Sakura was exactly the sort of compulsive lunatic to obsess over every little thing and gnaw at it until she chewed it up into unrecognizable mush and spat it out. When she wanted something, she went after it with the sort of ferocity that characterized starved street urchins: ruthless, determined and completely incapable of yielding. Though Sakura grew up with an abundance of everything she just never really learned to be satisfied, to share, to have _patience_.

It was why she obsessed over Sasuke, hounded Naruto, clung to Kakashi-sensei. It was the emotion that drove her to protect those she loved, so that no one else would ever be taken from her. Ever.

Jiraiya was the perfect sort of person to take advantage of that aspect of her personality and channel it into usefulness – fuinjutsu. Or, rather, he was preparing Sakura for a very specific type of fuinjutsu she was desperate to get her hands on. Sakura all but ordered Jiraiya to make her the best barrier wielder Konoha has ever had. JIraiya got to it with gusto.

* * *

And so passed the days, some so slow Sakura thought she was definitely going to die, to turn into a fossil or a living statue before the sun would set, other faster than a blink, quick enough to cause whiplash and make one wonder how the hell time flew by so soon. Before Sakura was ready, or maybe after she was thoroughly prepared, a month had passed from her parents' death, and she had worked up the courage to go visit them for the first time since the funeral.

Ino and Tenten had gone with her. Ino carried an excessively large bouquet she'd arranged herself, filled to bursting with Mebuki's favourite flowers and the few ones Kizashi could name. Tenten had brought Sakura, who nearly lost the nerve that morning, and had her hands quite full making sure she wouldn't bolt.

"Hi, mom," Sakura said meekly to the pristine tombstone after she'd properly lit the incense and made her offerings. "Hey, dad. I'm sorry it took me so long."

"She's a real pansy," Ino offered bluntly, in her usual manner which Mebuki loved very much.

"Ino!" Tenten hissed, "can it!"

"What? I'm just saying!"

"Oi, pig," Sakura growled, but it was empty of animosity. She was grateful for Ino in that moment more than she could express. That one snarky comment got rid of Sakura's awkwardness and discomfort. It was almost like they were four again, caught sneaking cookies, and instead of lying to get them out of trouble Sakura immediately confessed to an amused Mebuki, much to Ino's exasperation.

Or that one time, barely a year ago, when Kizashi had found Sakura's secret stash of dirty novels, sneaked in by Ino, during a girls-only sleepover. Hinata had nearly fainted with embarrassment, Tenten had started laughing maniacally and Sakure, being herself, immediately sold Ino out. Ino's called her a pansy then, too, and then bravely told Kizashi they were growing girls, and did he really want them unprepared for adult life, hmm? Kizashi elegantly bowed out, and the next morning the girls were faced with Mebuki's embarrassing, detailed and remarkably traumatising talk about the 'facts of life' they so dearly wanted to know.

In short, Sakura was glad her friends had come along.

"You look better, forehead," Ino said when they were walking back to Sakura's apartment.

"Yeah," Tenten agreed softly. "You really do."

"I think I'm better," Sakura confessed, a little shyly. "I'm not okay but… I will be. Definitely. Maybe even sometime soon."

"Greatness!" Tenten cheered, a little too loudly, and blushed when an elderly woman huffed at her.

"Get a life, lady," Ino snarked.

"Oh my god, Ino!" Sakura hissed, but it came out more like a baffled laugh.

'No one can take on Ino-pig,' Inner Sakura pitched in, her tone awed.

"Respect thy elders," Tenten teased.

"I respect my elders," Ino shrugged. "I don't respect gossipy crone's –"

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura's smile froze on her face just as Tenten lost the playful glint in her eyes and Ino abruptly stopped talking. They turned around simultaneously and not even a moment later, Naruto barreled straight into Sakura.

He was pale, his hair and clothes thoroughly rumpled, and covered in cold sweat. His hands shook as he clasped onto Sakura's shoulders for dear life and he nearly lost his footing. Sakura abruptly found herself holding him up, supporting all his weight in her arms, while trying to understand what he was saying. It was quite hard, as Naruto kept swallowing his vowels in his haste and muddles up his sentences.

"Naruto!" Ino barked. "Slow down! We can't understand you!"

"Ino, I can't slow down, 'ttebayo!" Naruto all but wailed. "It's a matter of life or death!"

"What?" Tenten squaked. "Who's?"

"Sasuke-teme!" Naruto yelled. "And Kakashi-sensei! Didn't you listen to me?!"

"Naruto," Sakura felt all the air leave her lungs when she spoke his name, and suddenly Naruto was the one holding her up, because Sakura couldn't feel her legs. Couldn't feel _anything_, really. "What do you mean life or death? What happened?"

"Sasuke-teme's brother!" Naruto looked as frightened as Sakura felt. "He was here!"


End file.
